Assam migrants in Kerala find hope through education. Here is their remarkable tale

Shomzida is all excited. A few days back, she and her husband received a call from their hometown asking them if they could go back and teach the children there. This comes as a surprise and a matter of joy to the couple at this juncture when they are almost in the last lap of their M.Com final year.

Eight years back, when Shomzida Yeasmin and M.D.Safiqul Islam took that long journey from Morigaon district in Assam to the town of Kochi in Kerala, they never thought their lives could change so drastically. The duo was too young to figure things out. Shomzida had just completed her eleventh standard and Safiqul, his twelfth. Both of them wanted to study further, but their financial constraints put paid to those hopes.

"I had to pay Rs.1000 or so for my 12th standard admission. Neither my family nor Safiqul's were in a position to pay even that," Shomsida says laughing and crying at the same time, recalling her past. Leaving their homeland was hard for them, but realizing that staying there was harder, was what propelled the duo to take a bold step. "In Assam, daily wages for laborers were very less those days," says Shomzida. When Safiqul told her that he would go to Kerala and find a job, Shomzida was eager to join him. So, they got married and left for Kerala in 2012.

Initially, it was hard for them as they did not know the state's official anguage Malayalam and the people they talked to were not proficient in Hindi -- a language they were versed in -- either. Luckily, Safiqul soon found a job as a water supplier in Nirmal Jyothi College in Kochi. He asked the college authorities if he and his wife could study in the same college. The director of the college approved. And from then on, there has been no looking back. Both of them completed B.Com and are awaiting their M.Com final year exams. Shomzida has to put in more effort, as she is also appearing for her CA Intermediate exams very soon.

Currently, Safiqul works as a supervisor of construction workers. He has to go to work every day and can afford to attend classes only on Sundays. Even so, he never misses out on any lesson. Thanks to his wife who regularly attends college and helps him with the missed out syllabuses. "In Assam, work combined with the study would not have been possible. Chetta (an informal way of addressing one's husband in Malayalam) can manage it here by attending classes only on Sundays, which would not have been possible in Assam," remarks Shomzida fluently in Malayalam. She picked up the language from her teachers and friends in the last few years.

They believe that one of them will soon find decent employment. "If Shomzida finds a teaching job somewhere, I would like to prepare for CA," says Shafiqul, confident in his tone. But they have a bigger couple goal that they share. One day, they wish to go back to their village and start a higher education institution. "There are hardly any schools and colleges that offer a course in Commerce. We wish to introduce this subject to the students of our village," says Shomzida. Shomzida's excitement that knew no bounds, echoed on the phone.