When 25-year-old Harshali Nagrale received an admission offer from the Royal Holloway College in London in January, she was both excited an...
When 25-year-old Harshali Nagrale received an admission offer from the Royal Holloway College in London in January, she was both excited and worried. While being admitted to a Masters degree programme in a reputed university was a feat to be proud of, the high fees for the two-year course were a cause for concern. Nagrale is a first-generation learner from a Dalit community in Maharashtra. The cost of studying abroad – around Rs 40 lakh – was something she could not afford even with her two jobs.
After being unable to secure scholarships from the government of India and international organisations such as the Felix Scholarship, she decided to turn towards a more unconventional method of securing her college fees: crowdfunding. With the help of friends, she set up a fundraiser on the online platform Milaap detailing the breakup of her fees and the work she has done in the field of public policy and education of marginalised communities.
As she began to spread the word about her fundraiser, Nagrale experienced an overwhelming response on social media, especially from people in the Dalit community. “I received donations of around Rs 3 lakh from some Dalit students that had studied and eventually settled abroad, who...
