22-year-old Shashikant never let his adversities get bigger than his goals.

Born full of dreams in a space where they hardly come true, Shashikant grew up in Mahatma Phule Nagar, a slum cluster in Mumbai. The slums had a large population of Dalits, but being a boy with mature views, he never let discrimination get to him. followed Babasaheb’s writings. They had no house. Lived in a juggi for a very long time. Surviving on an insufficient amount of Rs. 3,000 a month, that his father earned by selling corn. His father’s income went into buying food. Shashikant, zealous and keen on completing his education took up odd jobs like distributing newspapers and helping political parties set up their billboards in order to make some money. “I would earn Rs. 500 a month & all of it went into paying my school fees. A student who never came second in school, he embraced every opportunity to learn. He even approached his teacher and convinced her to teach him English during recess. Along with school learnings, Shashikant says the lessons he learnt in life were astounding. After school, Shashikant wanted to take up Electrical Engineering to continue his passion of gaining knowledge. But he did not have enough money to pay his fees. He was forced to settle for a degree in Commerce. Shashikant was informed about the Magic Bus livelihoods programme at Vikroli. The Magic Bus Livelihoods Programme connected the aspirations and potential of young people to available market opportunities. He decided to join the programme. Shashikant was in the first batch of the Livelihoods programme. He was certain he could be an entrepreneur.

Three years into completing the programme, Shashikant now works as an Account Representative for Accenture, a multinational software company.