Madhusmita Sahoo had loads of dreams in her eyes. She wanted to become something in her life. Despite a brilliant academic background, she was not sure if she could reach her goal because of her poor economic background. Her father, who sells betel leaf door-to-door, was not in a position to afford for her studies.
However, destiny had written its own script. She was noticed by former chief commissioner of customs and Central excise, Visakhapatnam, S.C. Choudhury. The retired Indian revenue service officer, who always desired to bring talented and deserving economically disadvantaged students to the forefront, decided to support her through his organisation Vikash Educational Charitable Trust (VECT).
After her intermediate examination in which she figured in the top 10 list, Madhusmita pursued her graduation in economics at Dhenkanal Government College. The trust extended all possible financial and other supports to her.
On completion of her graduation, she was brought to Bhubaneswar where a few other friends of Mr Choudhury joined him to groom the girl. In 2004, Madhusmita gave her mentors a pleasant surprise when she got selected in IAS.
Madhusmita’s s success is one of several such stories scripted by VECT. Gauri Babu, who lived in a slum of Vizianagaram in Andhra Pradesh; Alakananda, daughter a tea vendor in Cuttack and Minakshi, a daughter of a poor farmer, are today placed in high-salaried jobs.
“Since the organisation was founded in 1992, we have picked up several boys and girls who were successfully groomed. Some of them have entered into administrative jobs while others have joined engineering and medical sciences,” adds Mr Choudhury, who is also the chairman of the trust.
VECT selects students from among the deprived classes. Besides free study materials, students who find place among the first five per cent in the joint engineering and medical entrance test list, are given an annual financial support up to `25,000 to pursue their studies.
A few like-minded friends of Mr Chodhury have joined hands with him to carry forward his mission. People like Dr Saheb Sahu, Ram Mohan Rao Kakani, Dr Ratnam Chittuuri and Dr Dhanada Kanta Mishra have been associated with the Trust since long for nurturing the talents. They regularly gather at the Mr Chodhury’s residential office at Niladri Vihar, Chandrasekharpur, where they discuss about the strengths and weaknesses of the selected student and accordingly prescribe them how to prepare for their examinations.
Regarding selection of candidates for the civil services, the trust picks students from humanities subjects only. “Our observation reveals that the percentage of humanities students getting success in civil services on the decline. That is why we have decided to encourage students pursuing humanities to prepare of civil services,” says Mr Choudhury.
Currently, the trust has some students who are quite genius and quite promising. One of them is visually-challenged. He is being groomed for the civil services.
Vikash Charitable Trust’s work is not confined only to produce IAS officers, engineers and doctors. It has also tied up with some primary and high schools in Bhubaneswar and other parts of the state where the focus is to provide quality education through scientific method by qualified and properly-trained teaching faculties.
“Primary education needs further improvement. The state government has allowed us to take up a few schools in the capital city and outside where we have engaged our own personnel to support the existing teachers there and teach the students in different methods to enable them do better in their studies,” informs Mr Chodhury.
The retired officer, who happens to be the chairman of the trust, adds further, “I do not know how much I have contributed to the society during my service period. But it gives me utmost satisfaction now that I and my friends are doing our best to give motherland a few good citizens through our small endeavours.”