Yapau Mro: First Mro woman to make it to Dhaka University

Yapau Mro grew up in a village that does not appear on most maps, located in Bandarban, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It is a small Mro village nestled between mountains, with no school, hospital, or electricity. For years, reaching the nearest road required a five-to-six-hour walk. After partial road construction during the pandemic, that journey was reduced to around two hours.

Yapau grew up there as the third of four siblings. Her family was supportive, but in that remote area, the nearest school was far away. To continue her education, Yapau moved to Thanchi and enrolled in a hostel.

The early years passed well. But the persistent challenge was language. Yapau's mother tongue is Mru, yet her entire education was delivered in Bangla. Managing a second language while being away from her family proved overwhelming, and she ran away from the hostel during class 3. Fortunately, she eventually returned and continued her studies.

Things became even harder when she reached class 6. She received only two meals a day, with meat or fish appearing just two or three times a month. The students around her came from similar villages — children for whom reaching a classroom had already required considerable sacrifice from their families.

She continued studying in the hostel until the end of college.

The admission race

After finishing college, Yapau moved to Chittagong to prepare for university admission tests. The environment there, she says, was not encouraging, and she began to feel like giving up.

When she got into Dhaka University, her parents did not mark the occasion in the way many urban families might have. It was not out of indifference; rather, the significance of Dhaka University simply does not have an equivalent frame of reference in Yapau's village.

At that time, a community elder told her about Manush Manusher Jonno Foundation, an organisation that supports underprivileged students. Her case was submitted after the application deadline had passed, but she was still considered. When one of the selected candidates declined, Yapau was offered the scholarship.

With that support, she moved to Mohammadpur in Dhaka to continue her preparation. She was the only student from an ethnic minority community in her coaching class. Adjusting to the food and pace of life took time, though her batchmates were welcoming and she eventually found her footing.

Yapau's goal was not specifically Dhaka University — any public university would have been enough.

She studied seven to eight hours a day. The main obstacle, she said, was the gap in her foundational knowledge. Years of studying in a second language at under-resourced schools had left her behind in areas that other students had covered more thoroughly.

She sat for multiple admission tests and secured places at Chittagong University and Jagannath University. In the B Unit admission test of Dhaka University, she secured the 1,125th merit position, earning a place in the Department of Political Science. In doing so, she became the first woman from the Mro community to be admitted to Dhaka University.

Home, from a distance

Yapau's village still doesn't have electricity or mobile network. To make a phone call, residents must climb to higher ground to find a signal. Her parents have never visited Dhaka, and travelling back to the village takes two full days each way.

When she got into Dhaka University, her parents did not mark the occasion in the way many urban families might have. It was not out of indifference; rather, the significance of Dhaka University has no equivalent frame of reference in her village. She understands this and hopes the achievement will become part of something larger she can do for her community.

"We hear about Digital Bangladesh and Smart Bangladesh," said Yapau. "But we never got to see the developments."

Most of her peers from the village have not been able to continue their education. The barriers are obvious: financial, logistical, and structural. Yapau has named her father as her most consistent source of support. Across years and distance, he made sure she kept going.

A small reflection

As a child, Yapau grew tired of the village and longed to see buildings, the city, a world beyond the mountains. Now that she is in Dhaka, she misses the calm of home — and cannot reach her parents whenever she wants to. They have never seen where she lives.

Yet she is still here. The village that once took five hours to leave on foot now has a daughter sitting in a Political Science classroom at Dhaka University.

For the children still living between those mountains — with no school and no road that reaches all the way — that is no small thing.

On campus, students regularly ask about her background and her community. She says she answers with delight. Beyond earning her degree, she hopes to work towards better conditions for the Mro community, seeing her admission not as an endpoint, but as the beginning of something larger.