15-year-old daughter of sanitation worker is the youngest Indian PhD research fellow!

Meet 15-year-old prodigy Sushma Verma from Uttar Pradesh—daughter of a daily wage employee. She is already a PhD research fellow at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (BBAU) in Lucknow—the youngest Indian fellow!

Sushma who hails from background of penury, cleared the tenth boards when she was only seven. At 13, she enrolled in Lucknow University for a master’s degree in microbiology.

Sushma entered the Limca Book of Records in 2007 as the youngest person to have cleared the 10th examinations.

She was determined to pursue a career in medicine. However, to her utter disappointment, university rules in Uttar Pradesh prohibited her from pursuing her dream and withheld her Uttar Pradesh Combined Premedical Test (UCPMT) results which she had given in hope of pursing MBBS.

“A person should always be judged by his or her talent and potential, not by age. I desperately wanted to become a doctor but now I have to wait till I turn 17—it’s a huge disappointment for me,” the Times of India quoted Sushma.

She isn’t the only brainy one in the family! Her elder brother Shailendra was only 14 when he became the youngest computer science graduate in India in 2007.

Sushma graduated from the same college where her father Tej Bahadur works as a sanitation employee. Isn’t that just more than the virtue of filial piety or the greatest gift a daughter can give her father?

Kudos to Sushma for having achieved so much at such tender age. She truly is an inspiration and an asset to the nation!