Berhampur: Five years ago, he was working in a construction site in Kerala, along with his three brothers. Rinku Uthan Singh, 27 of Matipada, a remote village in tribal-dominated Kandhamal district, is now a graduate in engineering.His widowed mother and three brothers, who had supported him for his engineering studies, were present while he received the certificate at the convocation of a private college at Chemperi in Kerala’s Kannur, recently.For Kishore, his elder brother, it was a happy moment. But for Rinku, it was the results of hard labour, family sacrifice and support of teachers and friends. “I had a dream to become an engineer, when I carried the stones in my head. I am happy now as I completed the BTech in electronics and instrumentation with support of my brothers and others,” said Rinku.“I have confidence to get a job and to provide financial support to his poor family,” said Rinku, who is now interning at a private company in Kerala.His journey from a migrant labourer with poor financial background from a remote village in Kandhamal to becoming B.Tech is not easy. While he was studying Class V in the village school, his father, also a migrant worker, died in a road accident in Hyderabad in 2011.As there were no other sources of income to maintain with five members in the family, his elder brother gave up the study and went to work in another state, while his mother had worked hard to earn to continue his and his younger brothers’ studies. After completing his Class X, he went to Andhra Pradesh to study Plus II and then went to Kerala to work with his brothers.In Kerala, I joined a computer course online. While I worked during the day, I studied at night. Seeing his interest in study, his other brothers had agreed to support him financially to become a graduate. ‘One day my elder brother and I had travelled to around 50 km to search for a college to take admission with only Rs 1000 in hand and little knowledge of Malayalam.The security guard of a college had once laughed, when asked him to take admission in engineering college. A teacher at an engineering college however guided him about the procedure to take admission in engineering after qualifying in an entrance test. I had taken admission in B.Tech in 2022 in a private college, where the staff had extended support to me to complete B. Tech, he said.
