Dalit rapper from Odisha’s Koraput raises Rs 37 lakh to review in Oxford University

By Express News Service
BHUBANESWAR:  Crowdfunding helped an Odia dalit rapper of Koraput increase Rs 37 lakh for pursuing a course on the Oxford University in London.

Sumit Samos Turuk of Narayanpatna block utilized for MSc in Modern South Asian Studies in Oxford’s St Antony’s College in November 2020 and was chosen for the course in January this yr.

The course charge for the one yr programme is Rs 25 lakh, which excludes the dwelling bills of Rs 15 lakh. But Sumit’s father being a trainer at a main faculty in Narayanpatna block might solely handle Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh for the course.

Unable to rearrange for the remainder, the 26-year-old youth determined to boost the quantity by way of crowdfunding website Milaap following a suggestion by his associates.

“My friends from India and Pakistan who have studied in Oxford helped me in the entire process. About 1,500 people from India, United Kingdom and United States donated Rs 37 lakh within four to five hours of opening the fundraiser on June 1,” Sumit mentioned.

He obtained Rs 70,000 to Rs 1 lakh in each quarter-hour on the day.

“Though I need a few more lakhs, students of Oxford have requested the management to waive off some amount of the fee”, he mentioned.

An alumni of Jeevan Jyoti Higher Secondary School in Semiliguda, Koraput, he pursued BA and MA in Spanish and Latin American literature from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in Delhi between 2012 and 2017.

Sumit was concerned in pupil activism in JNU, has been elevating his voice in opposition to caste discrimination by way of rap since 2017 and was a part of French Radio Live present in Paris between 2018 and 2020.