In our country, where female foeticide is an ongoing curse and where girls are ignored, restricted from attending school, the story of Sushma Verma is truly inspirational.

This 15-year-old, child prodigy is India’s youngest PhD student to be enrolled at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) in Lucknow. Her student career graph has been phenomenal – by the age of seven; she was through with her tenth standard. Bythirteen, she enrolled herself in college and was on her way to getting her Master’s degreein Microbiology from Lucknow University and by fifteen she is working on her PhD program–  at a time when all her fellow batch students are eight to nine years elder to her.

She has been very clear about her dreams and ambitions from a very young age and always wanted to be a doctor. She gave the Uttar Pradesh Premedical test, however University rules prohibited her aspirations and her results were withheld.

Wise and highly mature for her age, Sushma believes that “a person should be judged by his or her potential and talent, not by age.” This disappointment is huge blow on her dream to become a doctor, which she now plans to pursue once she turns 17.

She is not the only one in the family to be blessed with rare wisdom, her older brother, Shailendra, is the youngest computer science graduate in India at the age of 14.

What make all her achievements so special is that she has graduated from a college where her father, 51-year old Tej Bahadur, worked as a daily wages sanitation worker. Post achieving this remarkable feat, the Vice-Chancellor of BBAU, Dr. R C Sobti promoted him to the post of a sanitation supervisor on the campus so that he could support his family.

It feels so great and secure to foresee India’s future in the hands of such inspirational and intelligent individuals. With such children at the realm nobody can stop India from become a massive superpower in the years to come.