Nasima Khatun, 16, cannot hold a pen in her hands and write. A polio attack when she was five has left her hands crippled. But she has appeared for the Class 10 board exams in West Bengal and wrote the papers holding the pen in her mouth.

'Crippled hands and penury could not stop Nasima from appearing in the board exam. She is very studious and always scored good marks in her school exams,' said Sheik Shafi Alam, headmaster of Golabari Pallimangal High School where she studies.

'Now, she has become an inspiration for other students also. It is her willpower that made Nasima so strong,' he said.

Nasima of North 24-Parganas' Baro Mallika village is described by her teachers as a sincere student who always scored above 70 percent marks in all exams.