Pinki Haryan: The Slum Girl Turned Aspiring Doctor, Overcoming Adversity with Determination

“Poverty was the biggest struggle since childhood. It was painful to see my family in distress. As I got into school, I had an ambition to become successful in life. As a child, I lived in a slum so my background was my biggest motivation. I wished for a good and financially stable life. At that point in time, I had no idea what work a doctor does, but I always wanted to help my community,”  says Haryan.

Pinki Haryan spent her childhood begging on the streets and foraging for food in garbage dumps in Mcleodganj with her parents. She is now preparing for the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) to qualify for practicing medicine in India.

McLeod Ganj, also referred to as McLeodganj, is a neighborhood situated in Dharamshala, within the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh, India.

In 2004, Lobsang Jamyang, a Tibetan monk and leader of a charitable trust in Dharamshala, encountered Haryan while she was seeking alms. A few days later, he revisited the slum area of Charan Khud and recognized the girl.

The next step was to persuade her parents to allow her to pursue an education. Haryan was admitted to Dayanand Public School in Dharamshala, where she successfully completed her senior secondary education and passed the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate). NEET is a national examination that enables entry into undergraduate medical programs. Unfortunately, she could not enroll in private medical colleges due to their exorbitant tuition fees. With the assistance of the Tong-Len Charitable Trust in the United Kingdom, she secured a place at a prestigious medical college in China in 2018 and has recently returned to Dharamshala after earning her MBBS degree.

Jamyang emphasized that he created the trust to deliver essential education to disadvantaged children, allowing them to lead lives of dignity. He has dedicated his life to aiding children in low-income communities. Many who once faced hardship on the streets have found refuge with him and have gone on to become engineers, doctors, and journalists.