From seeking alms to prescribing balms: Journey of a child beggar from Himachal who became a doctor

Shimla: As a child, Pinki Haryan, along with her parents, begged on the streets and scavenged for food in garbage dumps in Mcleodganj. Twenty years and a Chinese medical degree later, she is now burning the midnight oil to clear an exam that will make her eligible to practice medicine in India.

It was in 2004 when Lobsang Jamyang, a Tibetan refugee monk and the director of Dharamshala-based charitable trust, spotted Haryan begging. Days later, he visited the slum cluster at Charan Khud and recognised the girl.

Then began the uphill task of convincing her parents, especially her father Kashmiri Lal, to let her pursue education. After hours of persuasion, Lal agreed.

Haryan got admission into the Dayanand Public School at Dharamshala and was among the first batch of students at a hostel for destitute children set up by the charitable trust in 2004.

Ajay Srivastava, president of NGO Umang Foundation, who has been associated with Jamyang for the last 19 years, said initially, Haryan missed her home and parents but kept her focus on studies, which she realised was her ticket out of poverty.

Soon enough, the results were proof of her dedication.

She passed the senior secondary examination and also cleared the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate). The NEET is an all-India entrance exam for admission to undergraduate medical courses, Srivastava said.

However, the doors of private medical colleges remained shut for her due to the exorbitant fees. With the help of the Tong-Len Charitable Trust in the United Kingdom, she got admission to a prestigious medical college in China in 2018 and has returned to Dharamshala recently after completing her MBBS course, Srivastava said.

After a wait of 20 years, Haryan is a qualified doctor raring to serve the destitute and give them a better life.

“Poverty was the biggest struggle since childhood. It was painful to see my family in distress. As I got into school, I had an ambition to become successful in life,” Haryan told PTI.

“As a child, I lived in a slum so my background was my biggest motivation. I wished for a good and financially stable life,” she added.

Sharing a childhood memory, Haryan recalled that during her school admission interview as a four-year-old, she expressed her ambition to become a doctor.

“At that point in time, I had no idea what work a doctor does, but I always wanted to help my community,” said Haryan who is preparing for the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) to become eligible to practice medicine in India.

Haryan, whose brother and sister have enrolled in a school after drawing inspiration from her, credited Jamyang for her “slum-dweller to doctor” success story.

“He (Jamyang) had a vision to help destitute and poor children. He was the biggest support system I had while I was in school. His belief in me was a big inspiration to do well,” she said, adding that there were several others like her who have made it big in life due to the support from the trust.

Meanwhile, Jamyang said he had set up the trust in the hope of imparting basic education to destitute children so that they can lead a respectful life.

“I did not realise that these children were so full of talent… They have become role models and are inspiring others,” he said.

Srivastava said Jamyang believes that children should not be treated as “machines to earn money”. Instead, he says that they should be encouraged to become good human beings.

“He has dedicated his entire life to the children living in slums. Several of them, who once languished in the streets, were adopted by him and have today become engineers, doctors, and journalists,” Srivastava said.