"Life gets miserable without education

Ratna was my next borrower for the day. Ratna is now a 1st year BA student. Her mother had taken a loan of Rs. 8000 from Milaap for Ratna's class 12 tuition fees. When I reached her place, I found her mother, Gita busy washing clothes near the community water tap. She told Ratna had to pay her upcoming exam fees and would be back in couple of hours. We sat down in the courtyard and got talking about Ratna and her previous year of crucial boards. 

Ratna is the youngest of the 2 siblings. Her elder brother works in a medical store in Maynaguri, a small village which is 90 kms away from the place they live. He dropped out in class 12. After trying multiple jobs and failed attempts at appearing for the boards, he soon gave up. Ratna’s father owns a piece of land in Dhupguri. The family of 4 thrived on the income from farming for the longest time. But over time, it got more and more difficult to do so. However, seeing her son struggle for a job without basic education only reaffirmed the fact to Gita that no matter what, Ratna had to be educated well. "Life just gets miserable in today’s times without education", she said. So even during such struggling times, both mother and daughter were convinced that Ratna needed private tuitions if she wanted to clear her boards. But paying a sum of Rs. 1200 a month was impossible with Roy family’s current earnings. This is when she applied for a loan of Rs. 8000 from Milaap. With her little savings and loan amount put together, Ratna’s fees were taken care of for the rest of the year. 

Today, Ratna is a 1st year BA student in the local degree college. She aspires to be a History teacher someday. As for the installments, Ratna has been private tutoring the neighbourhood kids of class 4 and 5 in order to complete her repayments successfully.