This Mumbai sweeper has just earned an MPhil in Globalisation and Labour

36-year-old Sunil Yadav, a street sweeper employed with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has swept his way to success by securing an MPhil degree from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai. Sunil, who is deployed at Nana Chowk in Central Mumbai, now aims to pursue a PhD to understand the problems plaguing the sweeper class and wants to find solutions to it.

“I am elated on securing my MPhil. By doing PhD, I want to deeply study the social system that has marginalised our (sweeper) class in the society,” said Sunil, who secured seventh rank in his post masters’ degree with ‘Globalisation and Labour’ as the subject, reported NDTV. Even after securing a good rank, Sunil wants to continue with his job as a sweeper.

“I am not going to leave this job. Rather I will continue to work for the BMC. I am not interested in any corporate job. Instead, I want to empower my fraternity in understanding their rights and fight for it. I want to be the voice of the down-trodden to wipe out all sort of discrimination within the society,” Sunil said.

Chronicling his arduous journey, Sunil said, “I got sweepers’ job on compensatory grounds as my father, a BMC employee, was declared medically unfit for the job. I was 10th fail and my family was struggling to make ends meet. I then realised there was a hunger inside me to pursue my education. I lived in a slum in Mahalaxmi where gangsters were common place. That played havoc on my studies but I did not budge and continued,” said Sunil, a father of two school-going daughters.

Sunil said that after passing SSC and HSC, he did his B Com and followed it up with a Bachelors degree in Journalism and Masters in Social Work simultaneously in 2011. Sunil faced several hurdles at work when he decided to go for higher education, but overcame all of them.

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