CHILDHOOD PAUSED

In the long term, kids may be the biggest victims of the pandemic—having suffered losses in learning and at psychosocial and developmental levels

- SRAVANI SARKAR

NEELU COULD EASILY belt out multiplication tables up to 26 when she was in class three. She had almost learned division, too. She was capable of reading and writing basic Hindi sentences and could also comprehend some English words. That was two years ago.

Now, Neelu, 10, a dalit girl from Nagla Shyam village, Bharatpur district, Rajasthan, is in class five. But, she can only recite tables up to nine. She can barely manage addition, and reads Hindi sentences with difficulty. Aman, her classmate, is even worse off—he only remembers tables up to eight and has completely forgotten how to read. “Neelu's and almost all her schoolmates' learning levels have reverted by four-five years during the past two years as lockdowns distanced them from education,” Suresh Sharma, principal, Nagla Shyam Primary School told THE WEEK.

About 750km away, in tribal-dominated Nogawa, Meghnagar block, Jhabua district, Madhya Pradesh, Nisha Dewal, 11, who was a class four student in 2019-2020, did not rejoin her school when it reopened in September 2021. She has forgotten everything she learned and her parents—both daily wage labourers—are unable to focus on her education as they struggle to care for their six children.

Siraj, 12, of Ghazipur settlement in East Delhi, dropped out of school during the lockdown because of the lack of access to online classes and the family income dwindling; his family is dependent on waste picking. He was found picking waste by volunteers of the Association for Social Justice and Research and was convinced to take classes at its child activity centre (CAC). But, Siraj remains out of school and continues to pick waste to support his family.