At 25, Piyasha Mahaldar stands taller than most of her peers.

Born with congenital phocomelia, the Santipur girl has lived with unformed limbs all her life. Still, Piyasha scored 99.31 per cent at the University Grants Commission’s National Eligibility Test (UGC-NET), a superlative score by any standards.

The results of the exam, announced on Saturday, automatically qualify her for a junior research fellowship and entitles her to a direct call from the College Service Commission for an interview for assistant professor.

Phocomelia is a rare birth defect in the limbs in which bones of the arms and legs stay extremely short. At present, Piyasha, a resident of Mamdopara, Santipur, is only 2.5 feet tall and weighs only 30 kg.

Her success in UGC-NET is all the more remarkable as she did not use a writer for it.

“It was a challenge, but I did it,” smiled Piyasha, a Bengali literature student. “The UGC-NET success is beyond my expectations, though. It was my first attempt. God has blessed me.”

The National Educational Testing Bureau of UGC conducts the NET to determine eligibility for lectureship and award junior fellowships for entry to teaching in institutes of higher education and research.

“Phocomelia is an extremely rare birth defect and is hardly seen in India. It is a chromosome disorder that affects the upper and lower limbs of a child. It is a type of congenital anomaly in which proximal growth of limbs is absent but the brain functions normally,” said Avijit Mukherjee, a senior professor at the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital, Kalyani, adding that such patients have to lie prone most of the time.

Piyasha, who completed her Masters’ from Krishnagar Government College last year, has always been “intelligent”, her mother Supriya, a homemaker, said. “When she was one, my husband (an ASI) and I realised that her limbs were not like other children. People avoided us on seeing her. But she was intelligent, excelled in her studies and never lost hope,” said the mother.

Debahuti Sarkar, who taught Bengali at Krishnagar Government College and is an officer-on-special-duty now at the higher education department, said: “I salute Piyasha’s mental strength. She is a role model.”

Her mother has only one anxiety. “I do not know who will look after her when we (parents) are gone. I appeal to the chief minister to help her find her way to secure her future.”