Mensa India has organized an IQ test for 4,000 underprivileged kids in Delhi. The IQ test has revealed that many of these poor children of daily labourers, rickshaw pullers, auto-rickshaw driver, street vendors, etc., have bright minds amid poverty. They are ‘Genius’ and ‘Gifted’ Kids from Underprivileged Backgrounds.

Amisha Paswan, a quiet, shy girl who, despite being born into miserable poverty, has achieved a distinction that many privileged children and adults aspire for — an IQ score of above 145 in Mensa India’s standardized intelligence test, which puts her in the genius category. Amisha Paswan is pretty articulate when she spells out her career plans. “I want to become a doctor and cure poor people“, says Amisha in fluent English, whose father works as a driver.

India’s poor but genius children:

In the past few months, Mensa India, Delhi, administered its internationally recognized IQ test to over 4,000 underprivileged children in Delhi and NCR as part of a unique project aimed at identifying and mentoring poor children with high IQ (intelligence quotient).

About 100 children from underprivileged backgrounds in Delhi have achieved a distinction that many highly educated children and adults aspire to. They have achieved impressive scores in Mensa, which is the world’s oldest, largest and most prestigious high IQ society with members in over 100 countries. Of the 102 extremely bright children it selected, over a dozen of kids, including Amisha, who performed extremely well in the test.

The others achieved IQ scores of 130-145, which puts them in the category of ‘very gifted’ children. The average score in Mensa India’s IQ test is between 85 and 115. Interestingly, all the kids were sons and daughters of labourers, rickshaw pullers, security guards, street vendors, etc.

Kishore Asthana, president, Mensa India, said, “Their genius is likely to remain unrecognised and under-utilized in the normal course. This will be a major waste of the nation’s intellectual resources. We have assigned a mentor to all the gifted children we have identified. We will conduct an aptitude test in Class X to determine their strengths and weakness and the kind of vocations they are likely to excel in and do all we can to help them realise their dreams,” added Asthana.

“A lot of these children are not aware that they have extremely high IQ and may not perform very well in academics because of their family circumstances. Nobody ever told them that they are very intelligent. We intend to keep telling such children that they possess a unique gift that can help overcome the many disadvantages they are born with,” says Asthana.

While these selected children come from various caste and communities, poverty is their common identity along with their determination to change the course of their destiny.

Mensa has about 1,450 members across India and over 200 members in Delhi. Mensa has estimated that there are about six million poor gifted children in India.