Many students return to their state to motivate others to apply. (Archive)When Ravi made the train journey from his village in Telangana’s Sangareddy district to take admission to Delhi University’s Ramjas College in 2017, he was leaving his state for the first time. “I became something of a celebrity because where I come from, people don’t leave the state to study. Most study in nearby areas, drop out soon and join their parents to work in the fields,” said the 20-year-old, who has completed his second year in the college’s B.A. (Honours) Political Science programme.
Ravi is one of the 115 students from schools run by the Telangana Tribal and Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Societies, who have been admitted to DU over the last two years. The son of tribal agricultural workers, he is the first from his family to receive an education, and is now preparing for UPSC examinations. These residential schools cater particularly to SC, ST and OBC children from rural Telangana, and the state government covers the college fee and accommodation expenses of students from these schools in Delhi University.
The Indian Express had Wednesday reported about the increasing numbers of students from South Indian states enrolling in Delhi University’s top undergraduate colleges. Across colleges, principals particularly mentioned an increasing number of students from Telangana as a noticeable trend. This is reflected in the number of students from the state admitted to Ramjas College over three years — in 2016, nine students from the state were admitted; in 2017, this rose to 15; and last year, it became 35. At Miranda House, 53 students from the state were admitted last year, and there were 25 and 43 students from the state in 2018-2019 in SRCC and Sri Venkateswara college respectively.
What makes Telangana’s case particularly significant is the state government’s push to enable socio-economically marginalised young people to make this journey to Delhi University — and complete it. Not only are more students from the state joining the university, more SC, ST and OBC students, many of whom are first-generation learners, are walking through the gates of colleges like SRCC, St Stephen’s and LSR.
In 2017-2018, a first group of 12 students, including Ravi, from these schools took admission in DU’s top colleges. “We have many degree colleges in Telangana, but those can only take them (the students) to a certain level. When we began thinking about helping them get admission in Delhi University, the question was if they would be able to cope at all. They are from poor families in tribal and remote areas. We called two officials’ children who were already studying in LSR and Hindu College to speak to the children who were interested in going to degree colleges. They told the children about their college facilities, societies and culture, which motivated 12 of them to apply and they got into top colleges,” said S Rupa, OSD Higher Education with Telangana’s Social Welfare Department.
After completing their first year, the students returned to their schools to encourage more students to apply to DU.
“The twelve of us decided it would be our responsibility to help 10 students each get admission. We received help from Telangana Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TTWREIS), and we wanted to bring more students from marginalised sections here. We went to schools and spoke to students in classrooms, which gave them the confidence to apply,” said Ravi.
That year, another 103 students were admitted to Delhi University — in Miranda House, Hindu College, Ramjas College, SRCC, Hansraj College, LSR, St Stephen’s, Daulat Ram College, Sri Venkateswara College, Keshav Mahavidyalaya and College of Art.
“This year, another 97 students with over 96% have applied and they will be joining the university,” said Rupa.
While some of these students received seats in college hostels, many are living in paying guest (PG) facilities. The state government is covering all of their accommodation costs along with college fee, spending an average of Rs 1 lakh to 1.25 lakh per year on each student.
For Tejaswini, who has completed her second year in B.Com (Honours) at SRCC, studying in Delhi had always been a dream, but a daunting one.
“I want to be an IAS officer and for that, coming to Delhi to study was a dream. After I completed Class XII, our sir (Secretary TTWREIS Dr R S Praveen Kumar) thought of helping some of us get the opportunity to study in DU. My parents were not willing because they had heard about Delhi being a dangerous place, but sir convinced them. Honestly, even I was very scared and it did take me a while to get adjusted because at first, I couldn’t speak a word of Hindi. But now I have learnt a lot. I have learnt that the world is a small place and we can go and strive for anywhere and anything,” she said.
