Kamalesh Shakhari: Bright but needy. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Kamalesh Shakhari sees himself unable to take a seat in a medical course for the second year running because his day labourer father can’t afford the Rs 6,500 a student has to pay at the time of admission.

Shakhari, who is from village Beraberia, Amdanga, in North 24-Parganas, has ranked 222 (SC) in this year’s joint entrance examination (medical). “But I do not have the capacity to pay the admission fees or meet the monthly expenses,” said the 20-year-old, who wants to become a cardiologist and has to work in the fields in times of acute poverty.

Last year, too, he had qualified with a rank of 361 (SC) and was selected for dental medicine. “I could not take admission for want of money. Besides, I wanted to try my luck next time to get admission to an MBBS course,” he said.

Shakhari said he was certain of making it to the merit list, but “the only thing that kept bothering me was whether we can afford it”.

Other than the one-time payment of Rs 6,500, which includes the admission fee, caution money for library and laboratory and six months’ fees in advance, a student of a state-run medical college has to shell out around Rs 1,000 as hostel charges. On top of this, there are recurring expenses on books.

Shakhari’s family owns a one-and-a-half bigha plot where paddy is grown. “It’s just enough for our consumption and there is no surplus to sell,” he said.

His father Karmadhar works as a day labourer in other people’s fields, earning Rs 40 a day. The family earlier possessed three-and-a-half bighas, most of which had to be sold to marry off his four elder sisters. “Now, there is nothing left to sell, only enough for our survival,” he said.

They live in a thatched house that has no electricity. “I study by the light of a kerosene lantern,” said Shakhari, who passed with first-division marks from a Barrackpore school.

Failing to take admission in a medical college last year, Shakhari enrolled himself for a graduation course at Barasat Government College. “However, we encouraged him to take the JEE a second time,” said Sumit Kumar Saha, a doctor who also heads a tutorial for JEE students and, along with others, supported Shakhari by providing books and study material.