On a summer morning, bundles of gamchas are being loaded on carts in Patwa Toli village in Gaya district to be taken to various markets in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. The narrow lanes are buzzing with activities, even though manufacturing, packing and transporting gamchas is an everyday activity for people living in this village—popularly known as the ‘Manchester of Bihar’. Every fifth house in the village has a power loom or a handloom machine that is used to manufacture gamchas in bulk. Annually, gamchas worth approximately Rs 100 crore are produced in Patwa Toli.
For an outsider, the beating sounds emerging from handloom machines from almost every household may seem a little off, but these machines, that are a lifeline of these villagers, have given Patwa Toli its identity. However, over the years, something has changed. The village has earned an additional nickname—that of being an ‘IIT village’.
Over the past decade, over 125 students from the village have made it to various IITs. In the past three years alone, 30 students from Patwa Toli have secured admissions in prestigious IITs, all thanks to the efforts taken by an organisation—Vriksh Be The Change—founded by Chandrakant Pateshwari. Born in Patwa Toli, he is an engineer by profession who has, through his organisation, taken up the task of mentoring underprivileged students in the village and helping them achieve their IIT dream.
Pateshwari recalls the heartbreak he felt when two of his school friends had to drop out of college due to financial constraints. That year, he resolved to do something to ensure that no one had to abandon their education due to the lack of money. After working in Bengaluru for a few years, he returned to Patwa Toli and in 2013, established Vriksh. Currently, the organisation provides free coaching to 120 students.
“My aim is not just to groom meritorious students. Even children who are below average in studies are welcome, as long as they have the desire to learn and the ambition to grow in life. Vriksh will continue to provide 24/7 free and fair coaching to such underprivileged children,” he says.
There are many in Patwa Toli who are ambitious; some are also doing the dual task of preparing for getting into IITs as well as manufacturing gamchas to help their families financially. Sagar Kumar, 19, is among those. His father died when he was in Class 4. Among two brothers and a sister, he is the eldest and there is no earning member in the family. “On my mother’s insistence, I left my studies and started working with her on the handloom machine. However, within a few days, people from Vriksh came and encouraged me to continue my studies. They paid my tuition fees and provided free coaching till standard 12. Had there been no Vriksh, I would have continued to work at the power loom,” says Sagar. He scored 94.8 per cent marks in IIT JEE Mains and believes that his name will get registered among the hundreds of students from Patwa Toli who made it to IIT.
Sagar considers the remaining days for IIT JEE advance examination as the most crucial that will decide his future. As a result, he spends most of his time at Vriksh, solving those questions that might be asked in IIT JEE Advance examination. Sagar is among the 28 students who have qualified for the IIT JEE Advance this year.
Vriksh operates on a library model, offering online IIT-JEE preparation. IITians from Patwa Toli conduct online classes. Additionally, 18 student volunteers from IIT Mumbai hold doubt-clearing sessions, resolving problems that students struggle with in JEE Mains and Advance. Apart from this, several other teachers and engineers, both from IIT and non-IIT backgrounds in Patwa Toli, also take classes.
Anjali Kumari, 17, is also among the 28 Vriksh students who qualified for the Advance exam with a commendable 90.8 percentile. Notably, she completed her Class 10 and 12 from government schools.
She learned about Vriksh when she was in Class 11. She aspires to become an IIT engineer but acknowledges the financial limitations of her family. Going to Kota for coaching was out of the question; even affording coaching in her own village seemed difficult.
“We are two sisters and a brother. The financial condition at home is not good. My father used to have a private job, but he has been without work for several years now. Reaching the IIT Advance level was very difficult for me. Vriksh has helped me a lot. The guidance from the seniors here is excellent. They tell us what to do, how to do it. If someone has a doubt even at night, the seniors solve it immediately,” she says.
In Patwa Toli, a village of a thousand households, one is likely to find an engineer in every home, and in some, even an IITian. Sunil Kumar, a resident of Patwa Toli, also studied at IIT Delhi. Currently, he teaches at an IIT-JEE preparation coaching centre in Delhi and also provides his teaching services free of charge to Vriksh.
“Earlier, the village was known as the ‘Manchester of Bihar’. Now, people call it the ‘IIT Village’. It feels wonderful to hear this. This village is gaining recognition everywhere. Now, there is a yearning in every household of Patwa Toli to be an IITian. And today, more than 300 people from here have already become IITians,” he says.
This wave of engineering aspiration in Patwa Toli began about 3.5 decades ago. The story starts with Jitendra Kumar, who became the first IIT engineer from Patwa Toli and also the first from the village to go to the United States. Jitendra, who reached IIT BHU in 1991, used to study in groups while staying in the village. After not qualifying for the IIT exam in his first attempt, he took the Bihar Engineering College exam and got admission to the Muzaffarpur Institute of Technology. In his first year there, he restarted his IIT preparation with some of his friends and within a year, reached IIT BHU.
Following this, the trend of becoming IIT engineers began in Patwa Toli. “Whenever I came back to the village during breaks, I would have group discussions with the students. I would tell them how to prepare. In 1995, I got a job at Tata Motors; I used to come to the village to motivate the boys. In 1997, I was selected at an American company. A wave of happiness spread through Patwa Toli. I received a grand welcome. Since then, people in Patwa Toli started adding ‘IITian’ and ‘America’ before my name,” mentions Jitendra Kumar while talking about how the caravan of IITians started.
Two years later, in 1999, seven students from Patwa Toli qualified for IIT. After that, students from the village started making it to IITs every year.
Jitendra mentions that the seven who qualified for IIT had formed an organisation called ‘Nav Prayas’ during that time. Like him, whenever they had holidays during their studies, they would come to Patwa Toli to teach, explain, and conduct group discussions with the students. However, he regrets that this initiative could not continue.
Praising Vriksh, he says: “Whenever I visit the village, I go to Vriksh and motivate people. Chandrakant (Pateshwari) has established a permanent coaching system, which is proving to be very helpful for the poor children of Patwa Toli.”
Shilpa Kumari, a part of the Vriksh, is pursuing Mining Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. After her 12th grade, she took a year’s drop to prepare for IIT. She says: “It was difficult for me because while I was good at studies, I could not go to another city for preparation. Even today, girls from our village and society are not easily sent outside for education. Also, my parents did not have the money to send me anywhere. If Vriksh had not been there, I probably would not have reached IIT Kharagpur.”
Priyamshu Kumar, 21, also from Patwa Toli, is studying Material Engineering at IIT Mumbai. He joined Vriksh in 2021-22 and reached IIT Mumbai after a year of preparation there. He says: “Today, in IIT Mumbai, students from different states also know about Vriksh. And I feel very happy telling them that I also reached here after preparing at Vriksh.”
Pateshwari says that those children who were unable to study for want of money are able to continue their studies. The second change that has taken place is that a large number of girls are coming out of their homes for education. Among 120 children at Vriksh, 80 are girls; there are 12 girls who have qualified in IIT JEE Adance this year.
There are many such coaching institutes in Bihar that provides free coaching to meritorious students for IIT JEE preparation. The most prestigious among these is Super 30. In 2002, Aanand Kumar and Abhiyanand had started Super 30. Following a similar model, Maulana Wali Rahmani started Rahmani 30 in 2008. The Bihar government also runs a coaching program called BSEB Super 50, organised by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB).
(Translated by Kaveri Mishra)
