© Srikanth Bolla
Srikanth Bolla with his Entrepreneur of the Year award
Bollywood is about to make a movie about the life of Srikanth Bolla, the young founder of a company valued at US$65 million, which almost never materialized.
As a teenager, Bolla was told that it was illegal for me to study math and science in high school because he was blind.
To make it possible, he had to sue one of the states that are part of India, as the journalist Arundhati Nath tells.
Every day for two years, Srikanth Bolla, aged 6, walked several miles to school in rural Indiaguided by his brother and following his classmates.
The route was a muddy track, lined with bushes, which was flooded during the monsoons.
They were not happy times.
“no one spoke to me because I was a blind child,” he says.
© Getty Images
The road to school was muddy in the rainy season.
born of poor and illiterate parentswas rejected by the community.
“My parents were told that I couldn’t even watch my own house because I couldn’t see if a stray dog came in.”
“Many people came to my parents and told them that they should kill me with a pillow“says the 31-year-old businessman.
ignoring this, his parents supported him.
And when she turned 8, her father told her that he had exciting news to share with her.
Srikanth had won a place in a boarding school for blind children and would move to the nearest city, Hyderabad, 400 km away.
At that time, the city was in the state of Andhra Pradesh.
© Srikanth Bolla
Although he was far away from his parents, Srikanth was excited and it installed quickly.
learned to swimming, playing chess and cricket with a ball that made sounds so they could locate it.
“I just needed the hand and the ear,” he says.
Srikanth enjoyed his hobbies but also He began to wonder about his future.
I had always dreamed of become an engineer.
And I knew I needed to study science and math For that.
When the time came, he selected those crucial subjects, but his school denied him a place arguing that it was illegal.
Indian schools are run by various agencies and each has its own rules.
Some depend on state governments or central boards, others are managed privately.
Srikanth school was run by the Andhra Pradesh State Board of Education and as such he was not allowed to teach science and math to older blind students.
was considered too big a challenge given the visual elements that involve their study such as diagrams and graphs.
Instead, they could study arts, languages, literature and social sciences.
© Getty Images
The Andhra Pradesh State Board of Education did not allow blind students to study science.
It was 2007 and Srikanth was frustrated by this arbitrary law that was not the same for all schools.
One of her teachers was also frustrated and encouraged her young student to take action.
The duo went to the Board of Secondary Education in Andhra Pradesh to plead their case but were told that nothing could be done.
But they didn’t back down.
They found a lawyer and, with the support of the school management team, filed a case with the Andhra Pradesh High Court requesting a change in the law of education to enable blind students to study math and science.
“The lawyer fought on our behalf,” says Srikanth, so the student did not need to appear in court.
As the case progressed, Srikanth heard a rumour.
A conventional school in Hyderabad, operating under a different educational body, offered science and math to blind students.
And they had a place for him if he was interested.
© Srikanth Bolla
Srikanth working at the Samanvai Computer Training Center for students with multiple disabilities.
Srikanth was happy and signed up.
He was the only blind student in his class, but he says that They welcomed him “with open arms”.
“My class teacher was very kind. She went out of her way to help me. Learned to draw tactile diagrams“, dice.
Tactile diagrams can, for example, be created using a thin film on a rubber mat.
When a drawing is made with a pen or pencil, a raised line is created that you can feel
After six months there was news from the courts: Srikanth had won his case.
The court ruled that blind students could study science and math in his last year in all state schools in Andhra Pradesh.
“I felt extremely happy,” says Srikanth.
“I had the first chance to show the world that I could do it and that the younger generation doesn’t need to worry about filing cases and fighting in court,” he says.
© Srikanth Bolla
‘A torrential rain’
Srikanth soon returned to a state public school and studied his beloved math and science, with an average score of 98% on his exams.
His plan was to apply to the prestigious Indian engineering colleges known as IITs (Indian Institutes of Technology).
competition is fierce and students often attend intense training before entrance exams, but none of the training schools would accept Srikanth.
“I was told by leading training institutes that the course load would be like torrential rain on a small sapling,” he says, explaining that they assumed would not meet the academic standard.
“But I don’t regret it. If IIT didn’t want me, I didn’t want IIT either,” says Srikanth.
Instead, applied to universities in the United States and received five offers.
chose the one from MIT and Massachusettswhere he became the first international blind student.
He arrived in 2009 and described his first days there as a “mixed experience”.
“The extreme cold was the first surprise as I wasn’t used to such cold weather. The food smelled and tasted different. All I ate for the first month was French fries and fried chicken fingers.”
But Srikanth soon began to adapt.
“The time at MIT was the most beautiful period of my life“, he says.
“In terms of academic rigor, it was tough and awful. The University’s disability services did a great job of supporting me, accommodating me and bringing me up to speed.”
© Srikanth Bolla
He also visited California while studying in the United States.
While studying, he also founded a non-profit organization, the Samanvai Center for Children with Multiple Disabilitiesto educate disabled youth in Hyderabad.
With the money he raised too opened a braille library there.
Life was going well.
After studying management science at MIT, he was offered various jobs, but decided not to stay in the United States.
The school experience had left a mark on him and he felt he had unfinished business in his native country.
“I had to fight a lot for everything in life, while not everyone can fight like me or have mentors like me,” he says, adding that once he saw the big picture, he realized there was no point. fight for a fair education if there were job opportunities for disabled people later.
He thought, “Why don’t I start my own company and employment for people with disabilities?”
Srikanth returned to Hyderabad in 2012 and founded Bollant Industries.
The company manufactures organic productssuch as corrugated cardboard containers, made from fallen areca palm leaves and is valued at US$65 million.
© Srikanth Bolla
An employee of Bollant Industries.
Employ as many people with disabilities and mental health problems as possible.
Before the pandemic, this represented 36% of its 500-person workforce.
Last year, at the age of 30, Srikanth entered the World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders 2021 list and he hopes that within three years the shares of his company Bollant Industries will be listed simultaneously on multiple international stock exchanges.
Bollywood also wants to tell its story with a biographical film starring the well-known actor Rajkummar Rao.
It will begin filming in July. Bolla hopes that people stop underestimating him when they meet him for the first time.
“At first, people think, ‘oh, he’s blind… how sad,’ but the moment I start explaining who i am and what i do, everything changes“.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgno3brqnyE