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Who is Sonam Wangchuk?
Sonam Wangchuk is an Indian engineer, innovator, and education reformist who hails from Ladakh. He is the founding director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh (SEMCOL), which was founded in 1988 by a group of students. Wangchu also inspired the character of "Phunsuk Wangdu" in the 2009 Bollywood film "3 Idiots."
He has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for ensuring the safety and protection of Ladakh as studies suggested the extinction of nearly two-third of glaciers in the Union Territory. Speaking to the media, he stressed that if carelessness continued and Ladakh refrained from being provided protection from the industries, the glaciers in the region would become extinct, thereby creating enormous problems due to water scarcity in India and its neighborhood.
Early life and education
Wangchuk was born on September 1, 1966, in Uleytokpo, near Alchi in the Leh district of Ladakh. Since there were not many schools in his village, Wangchuk was not enrolled in one until the age of 9. His mother taught him the basics at home in his mother tongue. His father Sonam Wangyal was a politician who later became the minister in state government and stationed in Srinagar. At the age of 9, Wangchuk was taken to Srinagar and enrolled in a school there.
He faced discrimination at his school, because he looked different compared to the other students and he would get addressed in a language that he did not understand. His lack of responsiveness was mistaken for him being stupid. Unable to bear the treatment, in 1977 he escaped alone to Delhi where he pleaded his case to the school principal at Vishesh Kendriya Vidyalaya.
Wangchuk completed his B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Srinagar in 1987. However, owing to differences with his father on the choice of engineering stream, he had to finance his own education. In 2011, he also went for two years of higher studies in Earthen Architecture at Craterre School of Architecture in Grenoble, France.
Career
Following his graduation in 1988, Wangchuk along with his brother and five peers founded SEMCOL. Wangchuk is also credited with designing the SEMCOL campus, which runs on solar energy and uses no fossil fuels for cooking, lighting or heating.
From June 1993 until 2005, Wangchuk also founded and worked as the editor of Ladakh's only print magazine Ladags Melong. Later, in 2001, he was appointed to be an advisor for education in the Hill Council Government.
He also founded Ladakh Voluntary Network, a network of Ladakhi non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and served in its executive committee.