In Ganesh Nagar Tanda, a small village in Maharashtra’s Parbhani district, Dnyaneshwar Chavan grew up in a house that was often empty. A member of the Banjara community, his childhood was shaped by absence — his parents spent most of the year travelling across the state as migrant sugarcane harvesters, moving from one village to another in search of work. With no one to look after him, Chavan, 27. studied through Class 8 in a Zilla Parishad school and later in an ashram school in Parbhani. He was enrolled in Shree Sant Dnyaneshwar Vidyalaya in Alandi, far from his village, because that was the only viable option his circumstances allowed. He was the first in his family to pass Class 10—a milestone that came with a promise. His parents told him they would work day and night to fund his education if he committed to studying further and building a life beyond theirs. He carried that promise with him.…