From Seeking Alms to Prescribing Balms: Journey of a Child Beggar from HP who Became Doctor

Shimla: As a child, Pinki Haryan, along with her parents, begged on streets and scavenged for food in garb dumps in Mcleodganj. Twenty years and a Chinese medical degree later, she is w burning midnight oil to clear an exam that will make her eligible to practice medicine in India.

It was in 2004 when Lobsang Jamyang, a Tibetan refugee monk and director of Dharamshala-based charitable trust, spotted Haryan begging. Days later, he visited slum cluster at Charan Khud and recognised girl.

n began uphill task of convincing her parents, especially her far Kashmiri Lal, to let her pursue education. After hours of persuasion, Lal agreed.

Haryan got admission into Dayanand Public School at Dharamshala and was among first batch of students at a hostel for destitute children set up by charitable trust in 2004.

Ajay Srivastava, president of NGO Umang Foundation, who has been associated with Jamyang for last 19 years, said initially, Haryan missed her home and parents but kept her focus on studies, which she realised was her ticket out of poverty.

Soon eugh, results were proof of her dedication.

She passed senior secondary examination and also cleared National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate). NEET is an all-India entrance exam for admission to undergraduate medical courses, Srivastava said.

However, doors of private medical colleges remained shut for her due to exorbitant fees. With help of Tong-Len Charitable Trust in United Kingdom, she got admission to a prestigious medical college in China in 2018 and has returned to Dharamshala recently after completing her MBBS course, Srivastava said.

After a wait of 20 years, Haryan is a qualified doctor raring to serve destitute and give m a better life.

"Poverty was biggest struggle since childhood. It was painful to see my family in distress. As I got into school, I had an ambition to become successful in life," Haryan told PTI.

"As a child, I lived in a slum so my background was my biggest motivation. I wished for a good and financially stable life," she added.

Sharing a childhood memory, Haryan recalled that during her school admission interview as a four-year-old, she expressed her ambition to become a doctor.

"At that point in time, I had idea what work a doctor does, but I always wanted to help my community," said Haryan who is preparing for Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) to become eligible to practice medicine in India.

Haryan, whose bror and sister have enrolled in a school after drawing inspiration from her, credited Jamyang for her "slum-dweller to doctor" success story.

"He (Jamyang) had a vision to help destitute and poor children. He was biggest support system I had while I was in school. His belief in me was a big inspiration to do well," she said, adding that re were several ors like her who have made it big in life due to support from trust.

Meanwhile, Jamyang said he had set up trust in hope of imparting basic education to destitute children so that y can lead a respectful life.

"I did t realise that se children were so full of talent... y have become role models and are inspiring ors," he said.

Srivastava said Jamyang believes that children should t be treated as "machines to earn money". Instead, he says that y should be encourd to become good human beings.

"He has dedicated his entire life to children living in slums. Several of m, who once languished in streets, were adopted by him and have today become engineers, doctors, and journalists," Srivastava said. 

(This story is t edited by Republic and is published from a syndicated feed)