In a quiet yet inspiring turn of events from Jharkhand’s Khunti district, 56-year-old Ganga Oraon, a daily-wage peon in the District Superintendent of Education’s office, has passed the matriculation examination. The milestone, achieved with a modest score of 47.2 per cent, is not merely personal—it carries a symbolic weight for many like him, long sidelined by poverty and bureaucratic rigidity.

A resident of Kalamati village in Sadar block, Oraon, had once left school in Class 9. His family could not afford the mere Rs 40 required for registration to Class 10 board exams. That one missed opportunity, like for so many others in rural India, became a full stop in his educational journey. Decades passed. Responsibilities multiplied. But the incomplete sentence lingered.

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For the past 16 years, Oraon has been working on a contractual basis as a peon at the DSE office. His monthly income of around Rs 9,000 has supported his aged mother, his wife, and four daughters — all of whom are now married. Yet, despite years of service, his pleas for permanent employment were consistently rejected on one pretext: he had not passed matriculation.

It was this persistent denial that turned into a spark. Determined to remove the only formal hurdle in his path, Oraon enrolled again and appeared for the examination from Birsa High School in Chalagi. This time, he cleared it.

The reaction within his modest household was one of quiet jubilation. His 80-year-old mother, Hiramani Devi, unable to walk or speak properly, expressed her joy with tearful gestures. His daughters called to say they were proud. His wife, Chari Oraon, stood beside him with silent dignity.

The District Education Officer, Aparupa Pal Choudhary, commended Oraon’s determination and called it a “moment of pride” for the district. In a region with high dropout rates and limited educational access, a government employee returning to school in his fifties sets a rare but powerful precedent. She added that the department would honour him and support his future academic pursuits.

The story also raises deeper questions: Will Oraon’s employment finally be regularised? Will his perseverance inspire policy shifts regarding informal workers stuck in contractual roles for decades? And above all, how many more like him are waiting for the system to acknowledge their silent struggle?

In a bureaucratic landscape often defined by paperwork and rigidity, Ganga Oraon’s achievement is a quiet rebellion. It reminds us that sometimes the most enduring courage is found not in shouting slogans, but in sitting for an exam — 40 years too late, and right on time.