After husband’s death due to Covid, mother dons role of security guard, son takes tuitions to fund course fee

That’s how Kusum is earning a living for herself and her children, Anish (18) and Arnab (15)  after her husband Vishnu passed away due to Covid-19 in September last year. Barely had Kusum begun to piece her world together when her father who was supporting her after Vishnu’s death, also succumbed to Covid six months later.

Kusum’s husband Vishnu, who used to work as a security supervisor with Allen Institute,  passed away on September 19, 2020, after being hospitalised for a month. Earlier , the entire family tested positive in August 2020, and was quarantined. Kusum and the two boys were home on September 19 when  a doctor called up to say that Vishnu had developed some complications and was struggling to breath. A few minutes later, they got another call saying that he was no more. Kusum’s biggest regret is that she couldn’t see Vishnu one last time.

For two months after the death, Kusum and her children got free ration—sugar, tealeaves, atta and oil– but it stopped soon.

Recently, she got a call from Government school, Sector 16, where  Arnab is studying in Class X, asking her to deposit a fees of about Rs 245 for three months. Though Arnab is getting Rs 5000 a month under the Parvarish scheme of the Chandigarh administration, his fees has still not been waived off despite Kusum’s application. “I am told my file has gone missing or it doesn’t have the required papers.”

Her elder son Anish, 18, who has done a diploma from Indo-Swift and now wants to do computer engineering from Landran, has started teaching children in the neighbourhood, to raise funds for his education. The family does not know that he can get an annual financial support of Rs. 50,000  under the Parvarish scheme.

Kusum got a compensation of Rs 50,000 from the government of India but that went into buying books for the boys and other household expenses.

With her expenses on the rise and no source of income,  Kusum says she applied for the job of security guard at PGI. “They said they don’t have vacancy as yet but whenever someone is on leave, they will call me for a day. So I get an opportunity to work there four to five times  a month. I also stitch clothes when I get an order which is rare.’’

While the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) is not only supposed to provide funds but also provide counselling/grief counselling and need based therapeutic interventions to children to enable them to overcome the trauma, there was no visit by the officials to even check on the children who are all by themselves now.

Kusum is grateful that her husband’s employers gave her a death claim of Rs 5 lakh,  which she’s got deposited in fixed term deposits in the name of her sons.

“All those claims that government will help and take care of the family are just a sham. You are all by yourself. They should have at least given a job to a Covid-struck family.”