Lucknow: Son of debt-ridden farmer wants to create village jobs

Himanshu Singh
LUCKNOW: Reeling under severe financial crisis for the last few years, the family of Shivanand Singh, a farmer from Lucknow, finally has a reason to rejoice.
Their son Vinay Singh, a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) student of Lucknow University, has been named as the winner of Chancellor Bronze medal.
The medal will be awarded to Vinay during the LU’s convocation ceremony on November 26.
“This is not only a medal for me but hope and motivation for my entire family, which has been suffering from financial crisis for long now,” said Vinay, while recalling how his father came under huge debt due to crop loss and could not even sell the only piece of land they owned.
“Covid-19 pandemic added more challenges to our life but we didn’t give up. My father took another Kisan credit card loan so that my studies could continue,” said Vinay.
“I will work harder and go into the textile industry so that I can earn not only to clear the debts of my parents but also to set up my own textile business one day that can provide employment to people in rural areas,” he said.
While Vinay dreams of taking employment opportunities to rural India, his peers, who also have been named as medal winners, want to open schools and colleges in rural India.
Suhani Kanyal of Isabella Thoburn (IT) College and LU’s, Disha Mishra and Sharadha Pandey want to empower women of rural India by making the best education opportunities available in UP villages.
Similarly, Kuldeep Kumar Patel wants to become a professor and impart education to the underprivileged kids.
Other bronze medal winners, Puneet Deshwal and Priyamvada Shukla, aspire to take a career in legal field and fight for the rights of the underprivileged by becoming an advocate.