MANGALURU: involving her small earning for a guest instructor and also her husband’s meals vending company, Chitralekha was able to conduct the family and place their three kids through college.
She lost her role because colleges closed through the pandemic and with all the lockdown, her husband’s vend in Puttur closed down.
Currently, Chitralekha and also her husband, Sundar Naik, equally roll beedis to place food on the desk.
Their eldest son is a firstyear PU pupil, followed by a daughter at SSLC and also a boy at Class 2 at a school faculty.
The family resides in little home some 50km in Puttur.
Even the 37-year-old says she never guessed she’d be rolling beedis following nine decades of teaching English and mathematics to young kids.
“Shortly after finishing DEd at 2012, I combined the education department for a guest instructor.
I worked in several government schools at Puttur taluk, and afterwards in the government college in Balmatta, Mangalurusaid I began working with the honorarium of Rs 2,500 a month at 2012 and also my final salary following adjustments was 7,500.
The very first lockdown left me jobless without a wages afterwards,” states Chitralekha.
Her husband’s idli-dosa cart hardly got back on course once the next wave struck.
“Although he declared food vending in August this past year, purchase was restricted because of constraints within business hours.
The 2nd lockdown closed down his company .
Today we don’t have any source of income besides rolling beedis,” she states.
“We earn Rs 1,000 per week.
It is hardly enough for food,” she states.
Chitralekha, who’s also the district secretary of the Main and High School Guest Teachers Association, recalls that protests for trekking cover went unheeded.
And guest instructors aren’t qualified for the relief package announced by the state authorities , she points out.
“We’d also required that guest educators working in government colleges be made permanent employees after three decades.
We’ve got zero job security and no benefits.”