New Delhi: Children are at risk of stumbling behind due to school closures during the Covid-19 spread. Yet online education has been provided to students over Zoom classes and other platforms. However, some children have lost their parents or either of their parents in this pandemic. In this world, where nothing is free of cost, this girl has come forward to provide free coaching classes to all such children who've lost either of their parents in Covid.
Ananta, 21, a resident of Anand Estate, Karol Bagh, lost her mother who was suffering due to covid. She said, “Definitely, no doubt such initiatives are taken by the good citizens only when accompanied by their personal life story. The same goes for me. This is not the first time I am providing free education to such children, I did the same for 3 years (2018-2020) but that was behind the screen. This is the first time I am doing it and want to do it at a large scale so that its benefits reach as many of these suffering children.”
“The personal story of mine which I was talking about is related to my beloved mother, Archana Sharma. She was a PGT Teacher in a government-aided school. On duty, she caught the symptoms from one of her colleagues. She was admitted to DRDO facilitated by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Hospital,” she said.
She further added that her mother is no more. She said, “Only a sufferer could understand the sufferer's pain.” Ananta knows the pain, grief of when one loses someone so close to them. She took her time and when she got back to her senses, she wanted to do something for the families who have gone through similar pain.
She said, “Realizing the same, the only help which I can do on my own is to teach for free for the whole session from Nursery to 10th, all subjects and class 11th and 12th Humanities + BA. I shared the same information in my known contacts on May 12, people admired and some even showed interest to join. Gradually, I was able to accumulate approximately 20 teachers for this cause. Now we can provide tuition for all streams of science, commerce and humanities. I don't know who out of these 20 will stick to the end... but I'll be there for sure. I know somewhere it could hamper my future, my career but I seriously don't care. The pain of these families is much more than ours.”
Ananta was able to get 20 teachers for this initiative but the only hardship that they are going through is that they are not getting more enrolments of students. Till now they have only 5-6 students who have lately lost their one parent.
“One of them has enrolled today only. I had a word with her mother. She lost her husband due to Covid-19. Wish it was ethical to share call recording then I must have shared it with you all. I was crying while talking to her. Genuinely we can't even understand 1% of their pain. She was calling us God. She has 3 children, 2 daughters one of whom is married and another is 27 years old and a son who is 16 years old. They lost the only earning member of the family which makes the situation worse. She is a homemaker. God give her the strength to manage,” she added.
Ananta and her team are capable of teaching to all the students from Nursery to 10th-grade students including all subjects. Also, students of class 11th and 12th can register for all streams PCMB, Commerce, and Humanities. BA/B.com, MBA students can also register. They have initiated this for Covid affected families. All they need to show and submit is a death certificate and Aadhaar card/10th certificate of the child to verify the child's relationship with the person having a name on the death certificate.
Ananta said, “Initially there were no document requirements. But we have got calls from so many people who were misusing it. So we decided to verify and register the child.”
She also added that if they get more teachers or support from people/NGO/government then they will start this initiative for the other children as well, who are poor, needy, orphan children and not for just one or this year but every year.
