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Idea is to help fulfil long-cherished dreams of poor children

Patna: Heard of cows being deposited as admission fees in college?

Sounds absurd, illogical, incredible, but an engineering institute in Bihar is getting cows and calves as admission fees, instead of hefty hard cash!

The idea behind this move is to help fulfil the long-cherished dreams of the poor children in the countryside who cannot afford to pay their fee in cash.

Authorities said Vidyadaan Institute of Technology and Management located in western Bihar’s Buxur district, has, so far, admitted five children of farmers by receiving milch cows and calves as admission fees against 20 seats reserved for children from the poor families.

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The total number of seats in the institute affiliated to Aryabhatta Knowledge University, a state-run university recognised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), on which students will have to be admitted every year is 240.

Under its unique offer, the institute is asking the students to deposit only five cows and calves as fees for their four-year course in Bachelor in Technology with the condition that the cows must be giving milk.

The rule mandates that any students willing to get enrolled there will have to deposit two milch cows plus two calves in the first year, another two milch cows with two claves in the second year but one cow and a calf in the third year as fees to carry forward their engineering course.

“During a survey of the areas, we found that almost every farmer in the villages have cattle but no hard cash. So, we decided to admit their children against milch cows,” said Surya Kumar Singh, a former defence scientist and chairman of Vidyadaan society which runs and manages the engineering institute. He said the money collected by way of selling milk in the market would be adjusted as tution fees for the students but the cows are not refundable.

How these all function? Explained Singh: “We have formed a committee of local farmers which takes proper care of the cows and supplies milk in the market.”

According to him, on an average, one cow gives 2,400 litres of milk in a year — at least 10 litres of milk twice a day for eight months. Doubling this for a pair of cows, 4,800 litres of milk per year could fetch Rs96,000 (Dh6,390) at a price of Rs20 per litre. “So even if Rs36,000 is spent on the upkeep of the bovine, we will have Rs60,000 remaining which can be adjusted against the total four-year engineering course fee of Rs300,000,” said Singh.

The offer has sent the poor students in raptures. “I had never dreamt of getting myself admitted in an engineering college since my parents don’t have enough cash but today it’s dream come true for me,” exclaimed Akash Kumar Singh, son of a local farmer Vijay Kumar Singh, who has got himself admitted to the college by depositing a few cows. “I had cows at home, so I didn’t face any problem in getting myself enrolled there,” he said.

The entire areas of Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh are known as cow-belt where cattle are found in abundance. In this part of country, the villagers love to breed cattle at home for milk or farming purposes. Thus, the very idea has come as a God-sent opportunity for the farmers’ children who had been quitting studies midway due to severe financial crunch.