Free railway Wi-Fi helped this porter crack Kerala govt job test

Shrinath K, a resident of Idukki district in Kerala, cleared the exam by just downloading study material and listening to it on earphones to learn while he worked — for 24 hours at a stretch — starting from 9am to 9am the next day.

As a part of the Central Government's Digital India campaign that was launched in 2015, free WiFis were made available at all railway stations across the country.

In a country where young aspirants of civil services, engineering and medical colleges break sweat and spend sleepless nights to prepare for examinations, Shrinath K, a luggage porter at Kerala’s Ernakulam Junction railway station, cleared Kerala Public Service Service Commission (KPSC) exam — with help from free WiFi available at the station to study.

The 27-year-old from Idukki district in Kerala cleared the exam by just downloading study material and listening to it on earphones to learn while he worked — for 24 hours at a stretch — starting from 9am to 9am the next day.

As part of the Central Government’s Digital India campaign that was launched in 2015, free WiFis were made available with the help of  Google and RailTel at big railway stations across the country. This made life much easier for Shrinath, who was preparing for the exam for the past 18 months after his two unsuccessful attempts earlier. The father of a one-year-old daughter, Shrinath managed to score an impressive 83 per cent in the examination. With sheer perseverance and hope, Shrinath would revise his lessons every night after about 10pm till 1am, before the peak rush hours began.

Piyush Goyal

✔@PiyushGoyal

रेलवे के निःशुल्क WiFi से केरल में कुली का कार्य करने वाले श्रीनाथ के जीवन में एक बहुत बड़ा परिवर्तन आया है, स्टेशन पर उपलब्ध WiFi के उपयोग से उन्होंने तैयारी कर प्रतियोगी परीक्षा में सफलता प्राप्त की है, मैं उनकी सफलता पर उन्हें बधाई और भविष्य के लिये शुभकामनाएं देता हूँ।

2:18 PM - May 9, 2018

Having completed his studies till class XII in a Malayalam medium government school, the study material Shrinath listened to comprises of “most asked questions in public service examinations, GK and current affairs and Maths” — which he would prepare by practising in the night, he told indianexpress.com.

Though he was flooded with congratulatory messages from friends, family and members of the media, Shrinath is not putting all his eggs in this one basket. “The government may or may not call. Given how competition is so high these days, the vacancies might get filled up with people who scored even higher,” he said. He, however, is now preparing for the Railway Group D examination for this year. With parents, his wife and child dependent on him, Shrinath is only hoping to land a job that can assure him a monthly salary.

RailTel, in association with Google, launched the Railwire project to facilitate access to the Internet and connectivity for all. “We launched the project to provide free high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity to passengers at over 400 railway stations across the country. Today we are live across 380 railway stations, with over 7.7 million monthly active users. An estimated 15,000 people come online every single day,” K Suri, Director, Partnerships, India, Next Billion Users told The malwatv journalist.