New Delhi: Once a Class 7 dropout, a 20-year-old college student is now sensitising a group of Delhi youth to create awareness among them about social issues and their rights.

Ashkeen Ahmad, a resident of the low-end Mandawali neighbourhood in east Delhi, left school at the age of 14 after failing in his mathematics examination and started working as a mechanic in an automobile repair shop. However, within a year he realized the importance of education after listening to his customers conversing in English.

His father is a daily wager in a printing press and his mother is a homemaker. Ashkeen is eldest among four siblings, including a sister and two brothers.

"I left my job and joined (NGO) Institute of Social Studies Trust (ISST), where my younger sister Farah was studying," Ashkeen told IANS.

He then passed his Class 10 and 12 examinations from the National Open School and is now studying for a bachelor's degree in social work from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

During his final years of schooling, he worked for four hours a day at a tele-calling agency to add to his family's meagre earnings.