A Deputy Superintendent of Police in Jharkhand, Vikas Chandra Srivastava, runs a free online ‘pathshala’ that provides coaching to hundreds of young people from marginalized sections of society as they prepare for various competitive exams.
This initiative by Srivastava has been a ray of hope in the lives of countless young people from Jharkhand and neighboring Bihar.
More than 60 students studying in the school run by the DSP have passed various exams conducted by the public service committees of Jharkhand and Bihar.
Apart from this, more than 100 students have passed the Police, SSC, Sergeant entrance exams including many other competitive exams.
In the Jharkhand Public Service Commission’s recently conducted exam for the 7th to 10th edition, 32 out of 252 candidates who successfully passed the final round of the exam had studied in police officer’s ‘DSP ki Pathshala’.
Srivastava was congratulated by the Education Minister of Jharkhand, Jagarnath Mahto, who invited him to his residence on Sunday.
Vikas, who became a DSP in the Jharkhand Police Department after passing the JPSC’s third party investigation in 2012, is a resident of Hazaribagh.
He taught history and general knowledge to students even while preparing for competitive exams. In the year he broke the State Civil Services exam, six other students taught by him also passed the IAS exam the same year.
Even after his appointment as DSP, he did not stop teaching other people. During his deployment in Ranchi and Deoghar, he went to the library and sometimes to a school or university to teach students.
He told IANS that even if he visited a village for inspection, he would try to make some time to reach the students and guide them in their future preparation.
During his tenure as DSP in Deoghar, for more than two years, he regularly taught students who had to prepare every day for competitive exams in the Ambedkar library which is located just behind his residence.
Likewise, in Ranchi, as soon as he had some free time, he took classes in a tribal hostel and sometimes in the central library of Ranchi University.
He started taking online classes via the ‘Zoom’ app when physical education in schools came to a standstill during the Covid-induced lockdowns. Hundreds of students joined his classes during the pandemic.
In July 2021, he created a small YouTube channel called ‘DSP Ki Pathshala’. On this online social media channel, he would conduct live classes four to five days a week, where 500 to 600 students would interact and study directly with him.
Later, Srivastava would record these online lessons on YouTube for the students to use as they saw fit. His YouTube channel currently has over 47,000 subscribers. In addition, he has formed groups on Telegram, connecting almost 5,000 students directly with him. He provides the students with study notes and tips through these online social media groups.
The 47-year-old is currently placed in the Ranchi Police Investigation Training School. This gives him some time to teach students every night after completing his job as a police officer. This time he took online classes in preparation for the JPSC Civil Services PT, Mains and Interview round.
He also organized a 10-day physical class to prepare students for the JPSC Civil Services interview round. He invited almost ten experts for a mock interview. The result of this teaching exercise was that in the final round of the exam, more than 10 percent of the successful candidates were those who had received guidance from ‘DSP ki Pathshala’.
Prior to this, in the JPSC 6th Batch survey, the first topper Suman Gupta of Administrative Services Cadre and the second topper Ashok Bharti had prepared under the guidance of Srivastava. In this batch, 12 candidates studying in its free coaching class have successfully passed the competitive exam. Likewise, five candidates selected for DSP in the fifth batch exam were taught by him.
Vikas said so far 16 of his students have been selected for DSP and 25 for Administrative Services and other cadres. In 2012, 62 of his students passed the reassignment exam for the inspector and sergeant posts.
Vikas personally helped the poor and underprivileged students. Two years ago, a student from Madhupur qualified for NIT but did not have the money to pay for his admission. At that time, he had provided financial aid of Rs 40,000 from his own salary. There are a large number of students who have been given books and study materials.
Vikas considers his late father Avinash Chandra Srivastava to be his role model. His father was a high school teacher. He said: “I learned from my father that whatever we acquire, including knowledge, by living in society, we have no personal right to it. Each of us should try to give back to society according to our ability. The DSP’s job is my livelihood, while education is my religion.”
Get all the latest news, breaking news, watch top videos and live TV here.
