Meet the sweepers, manhole cleaners, and repairmen who have cleared SSC exam

Meet the team of 'Miracle 23'—21 men and two women who have cleared their SSC exam, several years after dropping out of schools. Apart from this, the bunch of class IV BMC employees—sweepers, manhole cleaners, and road and pipeline repairmen, who earn less than Rs 6,000 a month—have earned a hike of up to Rs 3,000 in their salaries.

The recently announced results put the limelight on these workers who are in the age-bar of 23- 50. They were felicitated at the Dongri Municipal Night School in the presence of Assistant Municipal Commissioner (AMC) Udaykumar Shiroorkar, said the Mumbai Mirror.

Nilesh Sawant, 37, who cleared the exam with 62 percent said,

The whole idea of going back to school seemed daunting. But our AMC filled our forms and helped us in every way possible. Other conservancy workers are regretting they didn't join us. But no worries, we will train a batch of 100 workers to appear for SSC next year, he said.

The commissioner, who visited the Dongri Municipal School, felt the workers would benefit if they would return to school. He said,

I went for my driver's admission and learnt that the school was shutting down due to non-availability of students. That is when I thought of sending BMC employees from my ward there

Out of the 23 people, the two women Kalpana Jadhav (32) and Jayshree Kamble (32) travelled to Dongri from Panvel—a distance of 44 km every day—to work and attend the school. According to a report by Free Press Journal, Masoom Trust sponsored their refreshments, study materials, and question sets. ‘Miracle 23’ team now plans for ‘Miracle 100’ next year, where they would train 100 colleagues for class X exam.

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