India’s ‘Super 30’ for talented kids keeps amazing record

Patna: Mathematician Anand Kumar’s Super 30, which grooms children from underprivileged families free of cost for country’s prestigious and highly competitive engineering test has continued with its amazing record with 27 students out of 30 cracking the Indian Institute of Technology entrance test this year.

What’s special about its success is that all the successful students are the sons of vendors, vegetable sellers, landless farmers, cobblers, daily-wage earners and drivers.

Take for instance the case of Sudhir Kumar whose father ekes out a livelihood for his family by repairing shoes along a roadside footpath.

Sudhir who hails from central Bihar’s Nalanda district recalls how he once used to sit with his cobbler father to help him.

“One day I polished a man’s shoes but, when I asked for payment, he abused me and walked away. I was seething with anger, but my father told me to calm down and said that the best way to take revenge was to acquire real power through education,” he reminisces.

The insult became a big motivating factor for Sudhir.

“Today, I am happy that I have cracked IIT. How can I thank Anand Sir for all that he has done,” he says, his voice choking with emotion.

Another IIT successful is Sunil Kumar. His father is a daily-wage labourer who toils hard from dawn to dusk to feed his family of 10.

Almost similar is the case of other Hari Mohan Pandey, whose father is a landless farmer.

Vidya Sagar Gautam’s father is a gardener, Dhananjay Kumar’s father runs a grocery shop and Amit Kumar’s father is a farm labourer.

Most of the students said they could not have cleared the prestigious IIT test but for the active support from the “Super 30” a free coaching institute which selects 30 talented children from economically marginalised families and grooms them for country’s highly-competitive engineering tests.

With many of them struggling for just two square meals a day, education was only the least priority for them, but the Super 30 eventually brought hope in their life.

“We ate just rice and salt for many days, as there was nothing else in the house. And we had learnt to be happy with just that, but my father wanted me to study. My elder brother could not study due to hardship and that hurt him,” recalls Sunil, one of the 30 students who cleared the IIT this year.

He feels that there should be more schools like Super 30 and people like Anand Kumarto serve the society.

“In today’s world, when everyone is busy earning money this way or that way, here is a man who is virtually grooming 30 students with his hard-earned money. He could also use it for his comforts, but he is running Super 30 for the poor,” he says, adding he would also like to contribute to the society in future.

Even more moving is the story of Nidhi Jha who experienced hardship since her childhood.

Her autorickshaw driver father Sunil Jha did not allow his poverty come in the way of his daughter’s dream of being an engineer. He had a big heart, though he did not have the resources.

“I had never dreamt of this day. It is all because of Anand Sir. It is his selfless support that has made us see this day. With Nidhi in IIT, I cannot ask for more from God,” says Nidhi’s father.

Having himself experienced acute poverty in his student days, which prevented him from going to Cambridge University for higher education, Anand Kumar set up Super 30 over 13 years ago to provide absolutely free residential coaching to 30 talented students from poor families.

So far, 308 students from Super 30 have made it to IIT out of 360, bringing global recognition for Anand and Bihar.

Last year, 28 students of Super 30 had made it to the IIT-JEE, one of the toughest competitions in the country.