Auto Driver’s Daughter From One Meal a Day to Medical School

Education News in India, KOTA – In a small room barely big enough to hold one person, only a young woman spent twelve hours a day dissecting textbooks. At the same time as the world outside continued in its frenzy, the inside world was the battlefield where Prerna Singh faced the ins and outs of poverty.

Today, there is a conqueror of this struggle. Prerna, daughter of a dead auto rickshaw driver, passed the NEET UG examination on her first attempt with a very exemplary All India Rank of 1,033.

This latest education news is not just a story of academic excellence, but it is a straightforward account of survival. In the case of Prerna, her journey to becoming a doctor was full of hunger, debt, and the great burden that her family carried.

A Family Pushed to the Brink

The events of 2018 stood as a tragic turn in the life of Prerna. Her father, Brijraj Singh, was the only breadwinner in the family and made a small living as an auto-rickshaw driver in the coaching center of Kota. When the family lost its balance, and the man contracted cancer, things were ruined. They lost both their main source of livelihood and inherited a huge debt that amounted to 27 lakh rupees.

The situation was desperate, with four younger children to take care of and a bank notice floating above their place of residence. The family had to live on a meager monthly pension of 500 rupees in the name of Prerna’s mother. As fellow children of the same age were busy with phone upgrades or going out with friends, Prerna and family were busy with the next meal.

The Cost of a Dream: One Roti and Chutney

Prerna took one extreme step to make sure that her siblings had enough food and to save as many rupees as possible to pursue her education. She only ate once a day, and the food she ate usually consisted of one roti and a small chutney.

Money-saving was necessary, Prerna explained during the last conversation. Any rupee money spent on food was a rupee that was being redirected towards my goal or the welfare of my family members.

Another luxury she was not able to afford was transportation. Despite the fact that Kota has roads full of students and rickshaws, Prerna used to walk or ride a bicycle. She walked the miles in the sweltering heat of Rajasthan to get to study centres or libraries and had a stoic stance with a concentrated mind.

Studying Through the Darkness

The circumstances of her preparation were not quite good. Living in a very small space with several relatives implied that silence was a very rare item. Prerna had her own schedule, and she could study up to ten or twelve hours in a row. Malnutrition would have crippled most people with the physical burden of it, and the mental burden of the 27 lakh debt, but she took it as a kick-starter.

I had realized that unless I passed this examination, there would be no way out for us, she stated. The debt was not a number; it was a shadow that haunted my mother and my siblings. The only way to attract them into the light was to become a doctor.

A Result That Changed Everything

When the NEET UG results were announced, the Singh family had a moment of pure happiness. Prerna achieved 686 marks out of 720. In a country where over 20 lakh applicants are competing for a few government medical positions, her position of 1,033 won her an entry to one of the best medical colleges.

This education news today was confirmed to the family. To her mother, it represented that her daughter was not in vain due to her sacrifice. It represented the first move in the right direction, at least in the eyes of Prerna, to keep a promise she had made to her deceased father, to take care of the family he left her.