After UP woman offers to sell kidney for kids' education, hundreds of Kerala schools come to her aid

Aarti Sharma lives with eight family members in a 300 sq ft room in Rohta near Agra
Reports quoted her saying her family has been engulfed by debts following demonetisation
Aarti said she was considering selling her kidney to fund the education of her four children
Students from 115 schools in Taliparamba constituency in Kannur contributed to the cause

UP woman sell kidney children education kannur school students

In a heart-warming move, students from over 100 schools in Kannur came forward to help a woman from Uttar Pradesh who had said she was considering selling her kidney to fund the education of her four children.

Aarti Sharma, who lives with eight family members in a 300 sq ft room in Rohta near Agra, was in the news recently after a report quoted her saying her family has been engulfed by debts following the central government's demonetisation drive which affected her husband's small-time garment business.

As debts piled up, the family could not pay the school fees of their four children who were studying at a CBSE school. Her meetings with local authorities and also Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath didn't yield results and the family was pushed to poverty. In the report, Aarti makes an appeal for help offering to sell her kidneys in return. The video was uploaded on Facebook by a social organisation and went viral.

CPM leader and Taliparamba MLA James Mathew saw the video after a friend brought it to his attention. That's when things started looking up.

"A friend of mine told me about the Agra woman's heart-wrenching story, and I got in touch with her family over phone. After speaking to them, I held a meeting with some representatives of schools in my district and asked them to spread word among children. The response that we got from them was overwhelming," a Times of India report quoted James as saying.

There are around 115 schools in Mathew's Taliparamba constituency in Kannur and students from each of them contributed to the cause.

"Charity boxes along with a poster of the Agra family were put up in all schools. Within a day, an amount of 2 lakh was collected. I was told that kids as young as six-year-old contributed their pocket money. In one case, an eight-year-old girl, who is also a child artist, donated her golden earrings that she had bought with her own income," James pointed out.

Aarti said she was overwhelmed by the gesture from schoolchildren all the way from Kerala,

"The legislator even offered to fund my kids' stay and education if I was willing to send them to Kerala," the Times of India report quoted her.

(Photo credit: ANI Twitter)

Last Updated Mar 31, 2018, 6:44 PM IST