Jyoti Kumari cycled for 7 days, going almost hungry for two of those, before she reached Bihar
Jyoti Kumari, the 15-year-old girl who last week cycled nearly 1,200 km, with her father riding pillion, to reach home amid the coronavirus lockdown, has been offered free tuition to appear for the IIT-JEE by Anand Kumar, founder of the widely-acclaimed coaching centre Super 30.
"Bihar's daughter, Jyoti Kumari, has set an example by peddling all the way from Delhi, carrying her father on a bicycle and covering an unimaginable 1,200 km. If she would like to prepare for IIT in future, she is welcome to the Super 30," Mr Kumar tweeted earlier this week.
The Super 30 founder also said his brother, Pranav, had met the young girl and extended the offer in person.
Jyoti travelled from Bihar to Gurgaon, near Delhi, in March to visit her father Mohan Paswan, after an accident left him unable to continue his job of driving an e-rickshaw.
Once the lockdown was enforced and public transport shut off, she set off with her father and cycled for seven days, going hungry for two of those, before reaching home; they had so little money she even had to borrow to buy the cycle.
Last week Bihar's Lok Janshakti Party offered to sponsor her education "in any stream she chooses". Jyoti and her family have also been offered Rs 1 lakh financial aid by Uttar Pradesh's Samajwadi Party.
The young girl has also been called to a trial in Delhi by the Cycle Federation of India. Her father, who told news agency ANI that he owed her his life, has said he is proud of his daughter, but is keen she prioritises her education.
The Super 30 offer is the latest in a line of accolades for the teenager forced into the impressive feat of endurance by an abruptly-enforced lockdown that caught migrants and those from the economically weaker sections by surprise.
Left with little or no money for food or shelter, tens of thousands of men, pregnant women and children have had to walk, or cycle, hundreds of kilometres to get home.
Jyoti's remarkable feat is both inspiring and heart-breaking, but it has a happy ending unlike the stories of hundreds of migrants who have died trying to get home during a lockdown that the opposition has repeatedly criticised as being poorly planned.
With input from ANI