Sitamarhi (Uttar Pradesh), October 13: Till a few years back none could have imagined that the nondescript village of Sitamarhi, about 80 km from Varanasi, inhabited mainly by Daihars — a community performing last rites — would have English speaking children on par with kids in metropolises.
For Rekha, a Daihar girl from this remote far-flung backward area, where 70 per cent population lives below poverty line leading a life constrained with poor hygiene, illiteracy and deep-rooted superstitious beliefs, it is a dream come true to be studying in an English medium school.
She aspires to be an engineer.
Thanks to the support from infrastructure company Punj Lloyd, like Rekha, many of her friends in Dayawanti Punj Model School now dream big and dare to defy the odds to become doctors, bureaucrats, pilots and astronauts.
“I had never imagined in my life that I can touch a computer.
–PTI