IIT students search Bihar streets for talent, find six gems

Talent-hunt among street children was part of promise to gurus at Super-30, coaching class that helped them crack entrance test .

PATNA, JULY 14:Seven-year-old Pramod has never attended school. But he adds large numbers like a wizard. Then there’s eight-year-old Sippu, who has extraordinary memory and reasoning abilities, and he can solve mirror-image questions of the sort found in recruitment tests for bank officers and CBI sleuths.
The talent-spotters who have identified six such children for future training are themselves students from less-privileged backgrounds who made it to the IITs thanks to nurturing from the now-famous Super-30 Institute here.
The four IIT students who have identified these talented boys are Jainesh Sinha, Harsh Pallav, Saurav Kumar, and Roshan Kumar. They say this is their way of fulfilling a “give back to Bihar” promise they made their gurus at the institution.
The talent hunt is the latest experiment from the institute set up and run by additional DGP Abhayanand and mathematician Anand Kumar.
“This group of IIT students was in the state during the summer vacation. I gave them the task of hunting for 5-6 talented children forced by poverty to work as child labourers,” says Abhayanand. “And they have done an excellent job.”
Now, he says, it is for “the government and respected members of society” to come forward to sponsor the studies of these children.
The six children are to be presented before Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well as prominent citizens at a show where they will display their talents.
Said Jainesh Sinha, who was part of the search team and is now preparing them for the show, “They are gems. They need our help and support and I am sure they will blossom into geniuses.”
Sinha and his friends say they went around on a rigorous scouting trip, visiting street children, those living on railway platforms and others in remand homes.
Said Abhayanand, “We help talented poor students to crack the IIT entrance. But there are talents who will never be able to reach our institute as they don’t get an opportunity to study. We want society to ensure these talents study, otherwise it will be a national loss.”
Super-30 co-founder mathematician Anand Kumar, who has thrown open his house to provide shelter to the children, is excited.
“Their plight reminds me about my difficult days. Particularly, when I had an invitation from Cambridge but did not have the money to go. I ran from pillar to post for help but none came forward,” he said. “From then on I decided I’ll do my best to help the talented who are throttled by poverty.”