Gujarat: Covid bites into salaries, teachers regain crunch by making snacks

By: Kiritsinh Zala
RAJKOT: Aroma of fresh gathiyas and puris is unmissable while driving through Sanathal Road in Morbi town. But search for a farsan shop and there’s none nearby. But following the whiff and you are straight led to the most unusual place to cook fried snacks in bulk - a school’s kitchen with the chefs being 10-odd teachers of the primary section.
The income from selling these snacks would help the teachers run their houses as the school has not been able to pay them salaries due to Covid-induced closure and financial crunch. The Om Shanti School has nearly 2,500 students from Class I to Class XII, but the teachers have not received salaries for June and July.
The idea to make and sell farsan was that of the teachers who refused to give up and use their culinary skills to start this business on August 2.
TD Patel, one of the trustees of the private school said, “I can understand the financial crunch of these teachers who come from middle-class families. We are unable to pay them salaries on time because of the current situation. When they came with this idea, I asked them to use the school kitchen and premises for business instead of hiring a place on rent.”
Along with the big vessels, gas and kitchen, the school management has also agreed to pay the electricity bill.
The school continued online education for students of Class X and Class XII only. The teachers were earning salaries ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 25,000.
“As Janmashtami festival is approaching, people will buy farsan in big quantities. Therefore we decided on starting this business instead of sitting idle and home and brooding over the situation,” said one of the teachers.
Parents are biggest customers
Parents of the school children have already started purchasing gathiyas, sakkarpara, chakri and puris and placing orders.
“They are selling between 10-25 kg farsan daily,” said Sanjay Viradiya, principal, Om Shanti School.
Viradiya has helped them manage business and distributed the workload like marketing, purchasing of raw material, delivering the packets and cooking.”
“We didn’t get a salary for the last two months and it has become difficult to run the family expenses. We first approached parents of our students, but now we are getting orders from friends and relatives of parents also. We work here from 11am to 8pm,” said another teacher.