The village of IITIANS:- The untold legacy of Patwa Toli.

When we talk about Bihar, it subconsciously comes into our mind as the least-literate state, eventually it breaks down the stereotypical standards by producing most of the UPSC aspirants and IITians to the nation.

As in Bihar’s Gaya district, a village ‘Patwa Toli’ which was popularly known as ‘Manchestar of Bihar’ now termed as ‘village of IITians’. In the small village of 1,500 households, around 300 students have cracked the Joint Entrance Exam(JEE) to make it to the coveted IITs.

Last year 38 students from this village has cracked JEE Advance out of which 11 students got admission into IITs and other to NITs. Said Chandrakant Pateshwari, founder member of vriksh.

The organization ‘Vriksh To Be The Change’ set up by IIT graduates in 2013 which is funded by former IITians of patwa toli. The headquarter situated in New Delhi who organize the teaching module and classes through digital platform, Chandrakant revealed.

Apart from IIT aspirants, they’re the students who also come for the preparation for NEET. It provides a great opportunity to the girl students to stay and study free of cost with the study-materials and notes provided by the former IITians and stored in Vriksh library. It also enhances the confidence by the weekly test conducted by Vriksh said, Nancy Kumari, Student of Vriksh.

“Our students wowed with the projects like earthquake alarms, motion detectors, sustainable Aditya L1 model and laser alarm system to showcase diverse innovation and creativity.They gained teamwork and problem- solving skills” said by secretary of Vriksh.

Students from far off villages like khijarsarai, buxar,ranchi and sasaram come to attend the classes.The motive of this foundation is to provide the access of education to the unprivileged students for the welfare of the society.

The village was earlier famous for the weavers, being a hub of textile industry but the journey of Patwa Toli(IITs) began in 1995-96 when Jitendra Kumar, the son of weaver became the first person in the area to qualify for the IIT and moved to U.S.A for his Job. He acts as a catalyst to produce other IITs aspirants and boosting a remarkable transformation from traditional weaving community to an IITians factory. “From every house, there are four engineers and one IIT graduate,” said Chandrakant Pateshwari.

“With the shrinking of power loom units and due to rising cost inputs, increasing power outages and tough competition to the market which was the only source of livelihood changed the perspective to the inclination towards academic excellence” said a local resident of patwa Toli.

“Vriksh proved to be offering the academic support and access of education to every child regardless of their economical background” said Sanjay Kumar,a resident of Patwa Toli.
According to a report by The Guardian, for the children of Patwa toli, the academic strength is the only way to eradicate poverty-stricken life and weave a better life for the coming generation.