My name is Ramesh and I come from a small town in Bihar called

Muzaffarpur. Growing up in a town like Muzaffarpur and coming from

a Dalit background is wrought with challenges, but when you have also
grown up with an irksome disease like polio, it only creates a much
steeper slope of hardship. Polio is a painful disease, as we all know but
more than the physical challenges it’s the mental challenges that you
have to really grow up with. My family did not have the financial
strength to help me with my medication and even schools at the time
were not accepting of my disability. My parents worked very hard to
try to get me enrolled in a school and to educate me but every
institution I went to rejected me for my disability which left me
bouncing from one school to another and incomplete education.
Whatever little time I spent in different schools were times where I
was shunned by teachers and students because nobody ever wanted to
be associated with the disabled kid. I was excluded in every aspect in
school and by the age of 11 societal pressures turned me into a
drop-out. I started working at a very early age, wherever I got
employment. I went from working at tea stalls to household work,
from ironing clothes to doing anything just to get enough money for
one square meal a day. After 3 years of my wandering about for work,
I finally got a job in a local school, and that was my first ever stable
pay. This was the first time I ever experienced any form of job and
livelihood security. Now that I've been working at this school for over
10 years, I finally feel fulfilled, knowing that I have a job that allows
me to provide for my family. Now I live in Muzaffarpur with a stable
job, and good pay, I have a happy family with my wife, my kids, and
my parents and I couldn’t be more grateful. I want to let everyone
know, no matter where you come from, whatever your background is,
and whatever struggles you have grown up with, everything can be
fought, with a little dedication and a fire that drives your soul to
endure and survive hardship.