Dreams Shattered, Urban Poor Find It Even Harder To Cross Covid Bridge

The burden poverty

- Pankhuri Yadav

New Delhi: “We hadn’t been able to save much after working for two decades,” said Ruksar Bano. “We spent some money on a second-hand sofa set and a bicycle for my son. Now there’s no sofa and no bicycle. We sold them to make ends meet.” The 52-year-old domestic worker and her husband, a scrap dealer, were hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Between the two of them, they earned just enough to keep the family of five going. The lockdown killed their income, and they have ended up owing small sums to friends. They are still struggling; Bano has fewer houses that use her services and her husband’s business is yet to reach normalcy.

While the coronavirus has left many Indians jobless or facing financial trials, the urban poor, like Bano’s family have, as a class, been left reeling, their prospects shattered, the dream of educated children ushering in a brighter future now uncertain. Ramkumari, for instance, is at her wit’s end after her husband died of the virus, leaving to fend for her children and herself.

“My husband was a rickshaw puller and I worked as a household help. In June, when we were already hard-pressed, he tested Covid-positive and died after battling for 20 days,” Ramkumari poured out her heart. “I didn’t know where to start from. I didn’t even have the money for his last rites and had to borrow some from my neighbours. My employers were helpful but whatever money they gave me, it was gone by August.”