Chennai: When S. Sreemathy got admission to Tirunelveli Government Medical College for a MBBS course, she scripted history as she is the first from her Irula tribal community to study medicine to become a doctor.
She said that her achievement will be an inspiration to other members of the community to pursue their dream of joining in professions of their choice.
Talking to IANS, the 20-year-old whose father is a teacher and mother a plantation worker said: “Since I was a child in primary school, I wanted to become a doctor and nothing but a doctor. I pursued my dreams, worked hard, and finally am here.”
The Irula community girl from Tamil Nadu’s The Nilgiris district said that after completing her MBBS she wanted to become a paediatrician. The proud girl said that she wants to be a model for the Adivasi tribal students of The Nilgiris district as well as the students of the tribal communities from across the state.
Sreemathy said that financial instability and lack of awareness of policies are the reasons for students from the tribal communities failing to pursue their dreams of becoming doctors, engineers, scientists, lawyers, and journalists.
With man-animal conflict and several instances of wild elephants and other animals foraying into the residential areas, the students, especially from tribal belts are not able to attend classes.
The Irualar community and its plight have been depicted in detail in the award-winning movie “Jai Bhim” in which Tamil superstar Suriya donned the role of activist lawyer turned judge, Justice Chandru.
