Saloni Murmu: 84.4% and a Seat at Tata Steel

Saloni Murmu belongs to a tribal family. Her father is a farmer. Her mother is a housewife. She studied at a free school in a village in Jharkhand.

She passed out of SSVM Hendaljuri in 2019 with 84.4%. She cleared the entrance exam for an apprenticeship at TISCO — Tata Steel, Jamshedpur — and is now training at one of India's most respected industrial companies.

"This school has provided me many facilities, discipline and quality education which helped me to build my future," she says. "Because of their blessings, today I am able to move forward with confidence."

Every apprentice at Tata Steel competed against thousands of applicants. Saloni competed from a free school in a tribal village — farmer's daughter, no tuition fees, no coaching — and won her seat on merit.

That merit was built over years of funded education. The funding continues to build the next Saloni.