An Illiterate Farmer’s Daughter In Jharkhand Gets Harvard University Scholarship

Seema Kumari, a girl from Jharkhand has got a full scholarship from the Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the YUWA class of 2021 and also had been accepted to Ashoka University, Middlebury College, and Trinity College-Hartford.

However, this year, Harvard University had a low acceptance rate but Seema managed to secure a spot for herself. The reason for this was because this year, the University had just 3.4 percent of applications.

Seema, The Daughter of Farmer

Seema was born in a remote village named Dahu in Ormanjhi, Jharkhand. She is the daughter of underprivileged parents who rely on subsistence farming. Her father also works at a local thread factory as a labourer.

Seema joined the YUWA Football Team in 2012 in Jharkhand. Subsequently, she became a football coach so that she could pay her school fees. She stood against child marriage, defended her right to get an education, and played football for several years despite being ridiculed for wearing shorts.

How Seema Made It To Harvard

In 2018, Seema was accepted to the St. Louis' Young Leaders Institute located in the Washington University. She will be the first girl to attend a University in her family. Also, Seema will be one of the few girls to bag the scholarship in Harvard University from rural India.

The YUWA school supports girls belonging to rural Jharkhand's impoverished families. As per the data, only 39 percent of girls belonging to rural India attend high school in comparison to boys which is 45 percent.

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Earlier this year in January, the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act had been passed by a Voice vote. According to Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, "The prime objective of this bill is to help and educate girls and women which will help in stabilising societies, promoting economic growth, and advancing the US national security."

According to Seema, as quoted by Yuwa India says, "I want to see Gender equality in my village as well as the whole world. I have plans to start an Organisation for women in my village. The program would train women to be financially independent and provide them essential vocational skills and knowledge."