40 Students From Bihar's Village Of IITians Clear Jee Main

Gaya: Students from Patwa Toli, also called the village of IITians performed exceedingly well in the JEE (Mains) Examination.

More than 40 students cracked the exam of which 28 are from Vriksha Sansthan. While Sharanya of the village secured 99.64 percentile in JEE Mains, Alok got 97.7, Shaurya 97.53, Yash Raj 97.38, Shubham 96.7, Pratik 96.35, Ketan 96.00, Nivas 95.7, Gaurika Yadav 95.1 and Sagar, 94.8.

Call it a factory of engineers or a village of IITians, almost every house in the village has an engineer. It all started in 1991 when students started preparing for the engineering entrance exams and performed well. An organization named Vriksha Sansthan, which has been preparing students for the exams free of cost since 2013, has an important role to play in their success.

Sagar Kumar of the village who cleared the JEE Mains exam, secured 94.8 marks. In a conversation with ETV Bharat, he said he lost his father when he was born. After the death of his father, Sagar found support from Vriksha Sansthan. "I want to serve the country by becoming an engineer. I got support from Vriksha Sansthan, which works for the children of weavers in Patwa Toli. I studied there and achieved success."

Students of Vriksha Sansthan who cleared JEE (ETV Bharat)

Similarly, Asmita Kumari, who secured 91.82 percentile, also comes from a poor family. "My father is a weaver and mother works as a yarn cutter. I succeeded in the exam by working hard for 12 hours daily. I want to become an engineer and serve my country," she said.

Pratik of the village has scored 96.35 percentile. He said his father is a gatekeeper at IIM, Bodh Gaya. Shubham Kumar, a resident of Jamui said he came to Patwa Toli to prepare for the exam and cracked it with hard work and determination. Shubham said that students from many other states come to Patwa Toli to prepare for JEE.

Ranjit Kumar, who works with Vriksha Sanstha, said students of Patwa Toli have been cracking the JEE for the last three decades. "Every year, children from poor families clear the exam. This time too, the children of Patwa Toli, a colony of weavers, have done wonders. Students coming from other states have also been successful by studying here," he said.

Children studying at Vriksha Sansthan In Patwa Toli (ETV Bharat)

Before becoming a village of IITians, Patwa Toli was known as Manchester of Bihar. The textile industry started here decades ago. The village with a population of 20,000 has around 8,000 power looms.

Jitendra Kumar was the first to become an engineer from the village: It was back in 1992 that Jitendra took the IIT exam and cleared it. He is currently working in the USA. Jitendra Kumar's success became a source of inspiration for the Patwa Toli community. Jitendra also provides free education for the children of Patwa Toli through his organization called 'Vriksh We The Change'.