Impact: Surat school admits girl without birth certificate

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Keywords: Birth Certificate, Girl

Surat: A little girl in Surat, who had been denied admission by a school because she doesn't have a birth certificate will go to school.

Nutan Vidya Sankool in Surat, the school that had refused admission to the two and half year old Palak earlier, has now reconsidered its decision and decided to admit the girl.

District Development Officer PN Dave cleared the admission of Palak and sent a note to the school, asking it to admit the girl on humanitarian grounds.

The note also says that the state government will bear the entire expenses of Palak's education till Class 7, under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Rekha Patel, a domestic help, had found the little girl abandoned in a garbage heap on January 14, 2006.

Though impoverished, Rekha and her husband Pradip decided to take care of the baby and the couple has high hopes about her.

They never completed the paperwork needed to formalise the adoption. So, no school was willing to admit the child since a birth certificate was necessary first.

"I want her to be a doctor or a lawyer. She should serve the society when she becomes big. But we've tried all that we can to get her an admission in school," says Rekha Patel, Palak's mother.