The Super 300 route to jobs

Rakesh Agrawal, Dehradun

Aprototype of Bihar’s Super 30 has emerged in Dehradun, called Super 300. But that’s where the comparison ends. Super 300 doesn’t train marginalized kids for the prestigious IITs. Instead, it champions the cause of youth from poorer communities by arming them with skills that get them good jobs.

Twenty-one-year-old Anushka Kumari who is graduating as a Bachelor of Medical Radio Diagnosis & Imaging Technology (BMRIT) from the Combined (PG) Institute of Medical Sciences & Research (CIMSR) in Dehradun is now confident of getting a good job. She didn’t have to pay any tuition fees at all.

“My father is just a worker in Doilwala village in Dehradun district. My family couldn’t afford to send me to college after I finished school. But my sister’s friend told me about Super 300, so I turned up at CIMSR, which is just 15 km from my village. I got admission free of cost.”

Super 300 provides free education and board to 300 students who are from poor and  marginalized backgrounds, or are children of differently-abled and martyred army or paramilitary forces or police personnel. Victims of natural disasters or accidents can apply.

Lalit Joshi

Lalit Joshi, a lawyer with a master’s in social work, is the man behind the Super 300 scheme which he started during the Covid pandemic in 2020. Born in Harkola village in Bageshwar district of Kumaon in May 1986, Joshi came to Dehradun for higher education after completing his studies in a government school.

It struck him that Uttarakhand lacked institutes that could provide knowledge and skills through professional job oriented courses and where low-income children could get admission.

“While studying at a private university in Dehradun, I started marketing different professional courses and seats of many private institutions that had started mushrooming in Uttarakhand. It gave me enough resources to start my first institute, the Uttarakhand Institute of Hospitality Management and Tourism (UIHMT) in 2012,” he says.    

In 2019, Joshi took over CIMSR and registered it as a society under the Society Registration Act. It is a self-financing institute, attached to the Combined Medical Institute, a hospital. Two of its doctors, Dr Mahesh Kuriyal, a neurosurgeon, and Dr R.K. Jain, a senior physician, are board members of  Joshi’s institute.

CIMSR  offers a range of diploma courses in dialysis, midwifery, Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife (ANM) and General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM). There are degree courses in nursing, optometry,  physiotherapy, microbiology, and graduate and post-graduate studies as well. The institute, spread over 15,000 square metres, is well equipped with labs, classrooms, hostels and so on.

It has, over the years, become a centre of excellence for paramedical and nursing education. The institute is affiliated to the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal Central University. CIMSR’s BSc and MSc degrees are recognized by the Indian Nursing Council in New Delhi and the Indian Association of Physiotherapists. It is approved by the Government of Uttarakhand.

Joshi says the idea of starting a Super 300 scheme really began when he got involved in weaning youngsters off drugs. During the early days of his Nasha Mukti Campaign he realized children from poor families had nothing to aspire to. “Many children told me that they were drug-free and wanted to study further but just could not afford to. So I began thinking of a scheme that would provide them with professional education.”

He still spends a month every year visiting schools in Uttarakhand to talk about the dangers of drug addiction and offering children career paths and healthy lifestyle options. Joshi also runs a YouTube channel, Sajag India, which has five million subscribers and has received an award as well.

The Kedarnath flood disaster of 2013 and the Covid pandemic further strengthened his resolve to somehow get skill education to children. In 2022, after much thought, he launched his Super 300 scheme. So far 300 children have benefited and another 900 have been enrolled in various courses.

“We get no government support nor do we have any FCRA,” he says. Students admitted under Super 300 must take a pledge that after they pass out from the institute and are gainfully employed, they will sponsor a similar candidate. “So that they too fulfil their social responsibility and more children benefit,” says Joshi. It could be the student’s sister, another relative or a friend.

Joshi is the recipient of the Himalaya Ratn Samman in 2024 for his anti-drug campaign. In 2019 he received the National Youth Icon Award for his efforts to curb drug addiction.

  Gaurav Negi of Majothi village in Chamoli district says, “I did a bachelor’s in Hotel Management in 2023 under Super 300 at UIHMT and now I’m employed. Lalit sir changed my life.”

Negi got entangled in drugs after his father passed away in 2012. In 2018 he was caught by the police and sent to  prison. He says his sister told him about Joshi who counselled him and introduced him to sports and yoga.

Joshi points out that it’s not just drugs he has to battle. Shiny shops selling all kinds of liquor have popped up in the state and alcohol addiction is becoming a rising menace.  “It’s a tough challenge. But we are focused on ensuring that children from deprived communities become skilled so that they can find gainful employment,” says Joshi.

Children who are victims of disaster are also given the opportunity to study. Twenty-one-year-old Tanvi Semwal from  Bhiri village in Rudraprayag district got the chance to become a Super 300 student. She joined a four-year BSc course and has now become a qualified nurse. “When a disaster killed my father, Saroj Semwal, my life became a dark tunnel. But now I have dreams and hopes,” she says.

Children from outside the state can also apply. Khushboo Jaiswal from Balrampur village in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, was admitted in 2024 for a three-year Bachelor of Computer Application degree course. Her  father is a small-time farmer in the village.

Joshi dismisses comparisons with Anand Kumar’s famed Super 30. Yet both are born of the same idea, of giving poorer youth a chance to aim for the stars. ν