MANGALURU: Between her modest earning as a guest teacher and her husband’s food vending business, Chitralekha managed to run the household and put their three children through school.
She first lost her job as schools shut during the pandemic and with the lockdown, her husband’s vend in Puttur shut down.
Now, Chitralekha and her husband, Sundar Naik, both roll beedis to put food on the table.
“We make about Rs 1,000 a week by rolling beedis,” she said.
Their eldest son is a firstyear PU student, followed by a daughter in SSLC and a boy in Class 2 in a government school.
The family lives in a small house some 50km from Puttur.
The 37-year-old said she never imagined she would be rolling beedis after nine years of teaching English and science to young children.
“Soon after completing DEd in 2012, I joined the education department as a guest teacher.
I worked in many government schools in Puttur taluk, and thereafter at the government school in Balmatta, Mangaluru.
I started working for an honorarium of Rs 2,500 per month in 2012 and my final salary after revisions was Rs 7,500.
The first lockdown made me jobless with no salary thereafter,” said Chitralekha.