Bhubaneswar: Two medical aspirants from the Kandhamal district struggle to enroll in Under Graduate Medical Course (MBBS) at St. John’s Medical College, Bangalore due to financial constraints.

Each candidate has to deposit 6,28,000 rupees by Nov 28 to avail of the allotted seat by the government at St. John’s.

One of them is Sraban Kumar Uthansingh, 20, an orphan, from Mahagudi village of Kandhamal.

According to him, he could arrange 5,00,000 rupees from friends, well-wishers and others.

His mother died in 2000 in delivery complications when he was two years old.

“My father, an assistant teacher at a public school, struggled a lot to fulfill the necessities of our five siblings but he too died in January 2020 in the unfortunate heart attack,” Uthansingh told Matters India.

By the grace of God and by dint of hard work and struggle, he passed grade 10, scoring 81 percentage of marks and senior high school or intermediate (+2 Science) scored 68 percentage of marks.

“Without losing hopes and aspirations, he and his sister prepared and appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET- 2020) to study undergraduate medical course (MBBS). He scored 441 marks out of 720 and now I got the seat allotment at St. John’s with eligibility criteria,” he said.

The course fees are approximately 600000 to 700000 per annum per person. His earnest desire for MBBS study is at crossroads now.

“Though with much hardship and trouble, my sister and I could reach this stage but now moving further in our career is becoming very difficult without support from others,” he said.

His sister Sibani Swarnamayi Singh also passed the NEET and she is waiting for the next selection at St. John’s.

The other boy, Larenta Digal from Daringabadi, Kandhamal is also in the same situation as Uthansingh in terms of financial constraints.

Digal’s family has managed to arrange 3,00,000 with the support of donors and others, but this is still insufficient.

The 20-year youth has five siblings and parents are daily-wage labourers. In the aftermath of the lockdown, the parents are struggling to make ends meet.

“We have been running pillar to post of people for generous help, but we are unable to arrange the required amount. As the deadline near, pursuing medical education seems impossible with the given scenario,” Digal said.

Digal along with his sister and Uthansingh availed medical coaching facility at Solidarity for Developing Communities (SFDC), an NGO, Berhampur, Odisha.

According to Bijay Singh, director of SFDC, this year eight students from the institute have selected to enroll at St. John’s.

Four of them Catholics and the other four are Protestants, said Singh, a social worker and human rights activist.

According to him, four of them are Tribals, so their fees are subsidized by the government.

The struggle is for Dalit students who want to study medicine. Their financial condition makes their dream elusive, he said.