Children suffer due of lack of opportunities: Anand Kumar

Paris, Nov 8: Education has the power to transform lives of underprivileged children who suffer due to lack of opportunities, Super30 founder and mathematician Anand Kumar said here today.

Narrating success stories of many underprivileged students, Kumar was speaking at the ESSEC School, a top-ranked French business school after the screening of French film "The Big Day". "It is all due to lack of opportunities that the children from underprivileged sections suffer from.

As far as talent is concerned, they are as capable as others are and I have seen it in course of my 14-year journey with Super 30 that one small opportunity can transform them," Kumar said. The 90-minute film made by acclaimed film-maker Pascal Plisson features success story of an auto-rickshaw driver's daughter Nidhi Jha from Super 30.

The girl cracked IIT-JEE last year and is studying at the Indian School of Mines (ISM), Dhanbad at present. "Today, they are all working at good places and plan best education for their wards only because they have realized the true potential of education by experiencing it," Kumar said.

Kumar narrated success stories of many of the Super30 students from the underprivileged sections and was lauded by the audience. From the ward of a rickshaw puller and auto-driver to a private security guard and landless laborer, they have all reached where they could not even think of few years ago only because of education, he added.

More than 200 students from Super30 institutions have qualified in IITs since its inception in 2002. A total of 25 out of 30 students qualified in IITs from Super30 this year. In the past too many filmmakers from different countries have made films on Super30. First it was Al Jazeera and then Discovery channel, Japanese TV, British filmmaker Chritopher Mitchell also followed suit.

PTI