Across the country, various foundations are working to provide the right kind of guidance to youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds in the form of NEET/JEE coaching or after-school support groups, besides providing financial, academic as well as career-oriented support 17-year-old Shaikh Jakir Hussain from Tisgaon, Maharashtra lost his father in 2003 to neurocysticercosis – a parasitic infection that affects the brain – as his family could not afford the expensive medical treatment. Even as grim poverty stared him in the face, Jakir was determined to become a doctor but nearly gave up due to the prohibitive cost of NEET coaching.

Thanks to Lift for Upliftment (LFU), an initiative to coach underprivileged students for NEET for free, Jakir was able to clear NEET-UG this year. Run by doctors of Pune’s BJ Government Medical College, the faculty at LFU comprises students of medical and engineering colleges across Maharashtra.Talking to Jakir said, “After my father’s death, the sole breadwinner of the family has been my elder sister who runs a stitching shop. Due to financial constraints, my dream of becoming a doctor always seemed distant until a friend introduced me to LFU. Even though I joined their programme in Class 12, the faculty was co-operative and helped me both academically and financially.”

The NGO was started in 2015 by a group of medical students of BJ Medical College and was subsequently joined by all later batches, said LFU trustee Dr Farooque Faraz. Its NEET coaching begins in Class 11 and is exclusively for underprivileged students.

“We guide these students not just on NEET preparation but also on their Class 11 and 12 syllabi. Most students in our batches belong to tribal families or are from extremely poor backgrounds. We make sure to provide them with not just guidance, but also the right mentorship. Therefore, we organise mentorship programmes to understand the problems in their daily lives which hamper their studies,” Dr Faraz said.

During the lockdown, these students went back to their native places, but the LFU faculty ensured that they kept up their study schedule. “Many of our students could not afford mobile phones for online classes. Hence, we lent them our spare mobile phones,” he said. This year, 25 students of LFU, including three from Maharashtra’s tribal regions, will be taking admissions in medical colleges.

Another such programme that helps medical aspirants is the Zindagi Foundation in Odisha run by academician Ajay Bahadur Singh, who wanted to become a doctor himself but had to make do without medical coaching and eventually shelve his dream due to severe financial constraints.

Source and Credit : The Indian Express