“With the school closing, we had to face a lot of challenges because of the unavailability of a phone for my online classes. Meanwhile, my father lost his job and we were facing a financial crisis, barely able to meet our basic needs. During that time ensuring my education and families’ basic needs became the biggest concern for my father, and that resulted in his poor health. He was not able to concentrate on anything,” said 15-year-old Chanchal, a grade 11 student at a government school in Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
The stay-at-home orders after the COVID-19 outbreak left many families struggling financially, or without routine or rhythms in their lives. For some, managing their daily basic needs proved to be the biggest challenge and for others, staying at home could be the worst thought they have ever had.
Santosh Kumar Verma was very worried about facing the reality of losing his job at the petrol pump and having to stay at home. This pandemic was like an ‘upside-down’ moment for him as he never imagined being in such an uncertain situation, and was not at all prepared to face it. Meeting the family’s basic needs was not an issue initially, but accepting the situation was a concern for him, and having to deal with the situation made him feel very helpless.
The father of the 15-year-old Chanchal, after losing his job at a petrol pump in Tilda, was moved to tears and felt helpless. Sitting on the road near the petrol pump, he could not hide his tears and was unable to work that day knowing that was the last day of his work at this petrol pump.
“I wanted to send my daughter to school, to educate her and invested every penny of my earning for my daughter’s care,” said Santosh Kumar Verma with a heavy heart, thinking of his daughter’s education during the pandemic. He was working as an accountant at the petrol pump and was earning well to support his family. He has a daughter, Chanchal, who is a class 11 student in Tilda block of Raipur, Chhattisgarh.
The day after the announcement of the nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Santosh Kumar Verma could not reconcile the realisation of his unemployment with the virus outbreak. He was left with limited options and was affected badly by anxiety. It was very difficult for him, to try to balance his family’s wellbeing and his state of mind, which was more or less destroyed by the news of his job loss. Ensuring his daughter’s education was the biggest concern for him. With each passing day, his helplessness started making him feel indifferent towards his family.
Looking at her father’s situation, Chanchal, the girl who dreams of becoming a doctor, thought of utilising her family’s tailoring skills to support her family, while studying at home. Tailoring was the profession of her grandfather and she took his help. But, this effort could only be helpful in some ways.
The major challenge was to make sure her father went back to normal and to make sure she could study regularly. She spent a few days thinking about it and one day, during her regular remote mentoring call with Surekha, her Social Mobiliser Didi, she spoke about her dilemmas and the condition of her father. The Social Mobilizer analyzed the situation and tried to recall some life-skill training which she had attended on managing a timetable for routine work and for studies. She suggested Chanchal try to be emphatic towards her father and shared a few examples where one had overcome difficult times by being patient.
Her suggestions struck Chanchal, but still, she was clueless about where and how to start. Suddenly, she thought of the ‘Managing Time’ life skill session, that aimed to help prepare a daily timetable. The next morning, she prepared a timetable with the distribution of household chores along with dedicated time for her studies. She requested her mother and grandfather follow the timetable without disturbing her father.
The timetable helped Chanchal and her family manage household work, tailoring, and her studies. Inspired and guided by the visionary approach of life skill which she learned from her SM Didi, Chanchal was able to motivate and support her father in moving on.
Chanchal’s initiative and efforts inspired her father very much and he was determined to go back to his family’s profession, to be useful and supportive during such a difficult time. He began a fresh start with his skills of tailoring at home.
The first couple of weeks were stressful for the family, but soon things started falling into place. Initially, Santosh Verma, with the support of his family, started stitching face masks and distributed them in the community for free to ensure the safety of his family and the community.
Chanchal also joined and distributed the face masks, going door-to-door, to support her father in the promotion of the business. Then, with the festive season approaching, Santosh Kumar soon started getting orders for alteration and for fresh materials from his neighbourhood. This boosted his confidence and he now is very happy to be a proud father who takes care of his family and is able to ensure his daughter’s education.
He has noticed the difficulty his daughter was facing because of the unavailability of a smartphone at home, and though they have a phone through which they could talk to friends and teachers, Chanchal wasn’t able to attend online classes. She was also not able to access the online content shared by her Social Mobilizer. Soon, Santosh Verma managed to buy a smartphone and surprised his daughter with it on Dussehra.
He said, “I am the happiest person, being able to spend time with my family and earning a livelihood for them on my own. I was very distressed in the beginning, but soon realised the peace I was lacking, which was seeing my daughter study. Now I will live each moment with my daughter and support her dreams.”
Chanchal’s hope helped keep her father motivated and she is now able to join online classes regularly, and is very active in sharing her feedback on the online content she receives! “My father was able to buy a smartphone for me and now I am regular in my online studies and things are good at home,” she said.
She spoke about how pre-lockdown, everything was quite well in her family and how supportive her parents were of her studies. They had also visited her life-skills centre and participated in all the meetings and workshops organized by her SM Didi. She went on to talk about how all this came to an abrupt end during the lockdown with the closure of the schools, along with her father losing his job. However, she was thankful and happy to share that her SM Didi was with her throughout and the life skill training was useful for her and her family to overcome this difficult situation.