The new year always brings hope of a better tomorrow. So here are stories of three individuals who started life on the backfoot, ill-treated or abandoned by their parents. However, they did not allow themselves to become victims of their circumstances but had enough optimism and desire to make a better life for themselves. In fact, the factor that keeps them thinking positively is the obstacles they have overcome.
Manoj, Rekha and Pankaj are three examples of persons who as children fell through the cracks of a deficient welfare state, with its inability to tackle poverty, high incidence of child labour, alcoholism, orphaned and abandoned children, amongst many other ills. They exemplify how a few are able to grab opportunities that come their way to rise above the lowly state in which circumstances have placed them.
