MADURAI: How beneficial is the Kalvi TV to the school children? Express ventured out with this question to the students studying from rural areas in Madurai district.
The first person we meet, C Jaya, a Class XII student from Vellalapatti village, said: “My parents have four daughters including me. My mother hasn’t been feeling well. We used to go work as labourers in paddy fields, do all sorts of works, including ploughing and planting. We received a wage of Rs 150, which we spent on our sustenance. Not only me, all the 20 students from my school are working now. Though I received all the text books from the school, I could not study last year. Teachers informed us that lessons are televised through Kalvi TV, but we do not have TV sets at our homes.”
Another student, K Sanjay Nathan, a Class XI student from Pulipatti village, said that his parents were day labourers and the continual lockdowns made his parents jobless and pushed them into menial jobs. “Hence, my brother and I started working from the previous lockdown onwards. My brother is doing his UG degree in a nearby Government Arts and Science College.
We do all sorts of works, like, sell vegetables, deliver newspapers, work as load men, construction workers, and the like. We get an amount of `200 regularly, with which we are managing our livelihood,” he adds. He says he knew that his lessons were being telecast at 11.30 am on TV but that he didn’t have the interest to watch it. Sanjay Nathan sometimes joins his neighbour, who is also a student, and has a smartphone, and the two watch video lessons together.
Taking up jobs for survival
Sanjay Nathan’s parents were rendered jobless by the pandemic. Hence he, along with his brother, is forced to sell vegetables, deliver newspapers, and work as load men to manage their livelihood