Krushnachandra Ataka, a 33-year-old agricultural labourer from the Kondh tribe, is in an unusual hurry, inspecting any sign of disease in maturing paddy plants across a sprawling field in Odisha’s Thuapadi village, under Bissamkataka block of Rayagada district. The urgency is not only to ensure a good yield, but also to write a new chapter in his life.
Mr. Ataka, who returned to studies after a gap of 15 years (13 years as an agricultural labourer and two as a migrant labourer), has cracked the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to medical colleges, and is all set to join Saheed Rendo Majhi Medical College and Hospital, Bhawanipatna, in Kalahandi district in a week’s time.
Born to parents who have only one acre of unproductive agricultural land to feed five children of which he is the oldest, he passed his Class X exams securing 58% in 2006.
He would not have enrolled in Khallikote Junior College, Berhampur, for higher secondary classes, had a non-government organisation not come forward to take care of his boarding and college fees.
“At a time when my parents were struggling to make ends meet, my studies became less of a priority. My three younger brothers had started working, one as a mason, one as a motor mechanic, and the third as an agricultural labourer,” he recalls. He got admission to a B.Sc. Chemistry graduate degree programme, but dropped out in 2008 and returned to the village, so he too could become an earning member, taking up cultivation.
“I toiled hard in the field, but I only got a daily wage of ₹100, and so migrated to Kerala in 2012 to work in a brick kiln,” said Mr. Ataka. The first few months in Perumbavoor did not pay him enough, so he shifted to a matchbox manufacturing unit in Kottayam. “There too I struggled for money,” he said.
Upon his return to Thuapadi in 2014, Mr. Ataka took up agricultural labour again. In 2018, his now-wife’s family cancelled their marriage proposal saying he did not earn enough to support a family. But Mituala Ataka stood by him, and they now have a daughter and son.
“Though I kept working as an agricultural labourer, my primary school teacher’s encouraging words that I would one day become a doctor kept ringing in my ears. In 2021, I joined a training course and started purchasing National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books from Berhampur for preparation for the medical entrance examination,” said Mr. Ataka.
In 2022, he passed the examination, but again a lack of funds came in his way. He did not even go to counselling. In 2023, he cracked NEET again, securing an all-India rank of 7,18,996, and a State rank of 3,902.
Determined not to let the opportunity slip again, Mr. Ataka approached a moneylender in his village to borrow ₹37,950, the admission fee. In what came as a surprise, the moneylender said he would not charge an interest.
This time, family members have decided to back Mr. Ataka and make sure that he returns a doctor. “I have seen people dying of diseases because of the lack of doctors in my village. I hope I will serve my region when I finish my course,” he said.
