कभी न रुकी, कभी न थकी -पूनम Neither she stopped nor got tired

There is a village called Orap located in Buxar, Bihar, Tadhi Block, Panchayat Narayanpur. The total population of the place is 2500. Most of the people’s work as daily wage labourer in the village. That is the only source of livelihood for them. Women also work as farmers in the fields and grow wheat, rice and chana. Men migrate to different villages in search of work, for which 15 kms per day. These people look for work for cleaning sewers, carrying bricks and cement with a hope of earning 250-300 INR per day.Managing their livelihood was already a great deal of struggle upon which all of a sudden on the March 23rd a nationwide lockdown was announced.Their work came to stand still.

In the same village a community named ‘Chamar’ also resides. Poonam resides there with her family. She lived with her mother ,father,3 sisters and two brothers. One of her sisters is married, the rest three including Poonam are still unmarried. One of her sister is differently abled. The elder brother completed his education and now works in the city. Poonam is the second daughter of her parents. Poonam is 22 years old, she has completed her schooling, this year passed her 12th standard with good numbers, now she wants to pursue her graduation.

Poonam’s mother work as a cook in a nearby school, her father cannot work as he has had paralysis. Before COVID– 19 outbreak, Poonam’s brother went to Panipat to work, it took him 18 hours by train from Baxar to reach Panipat. He worked in a factory where he earned 8000 INR per month for the work of thread cutting. He would send 2000 INR-3000 INR home. Before the lockdown Poonam’s brother visited home during Holi, his physical health was suffering due to cold and fever, so the family called him back home, because he was home his earning also stopped and immediately after this the lockdown was declared and he got stuck at home.
Poonam is a very responsible girl, since the beginning she wanted to help her father and she does that as well. She has been working in the field and sows and harvest wheat, rice and chana,then she would tie their bundles and deliver them to the farmers house. In return they would get their wage and would buy grains with the money earned.

Then the lockdown was declared world wide and everyone was confined to their homes, but Poonam was then also spending most of her time on the field, busy in planting & harvesting wheat and rice. Moreover, she also got involved in plowing onions for which she would get paid. She would also travel 2-3 kms away from her village. She would leave home at 3 o'clock and would come back in the evening around 4 o'clock. There were few other women and girls from the neighbour who would travel with her. While walking with Poonam everyone would discuss the COVID- 19 situation.

Everyone was saying different things about it, few read from the newspaper and few would try to understand from the news channels as they had the television, but Poonam or her family did not have access to these things at their home. Poonam only knew as much she heard. Sometimes, while working in the field the police would come and ask to stop the work, they would also tell everyone to maintain physical distance from each other. Poonam would carry her own food from home, however, often due to the presence of a lot of people around her she would not eat. It was difficult to maintain social distance in the field.

What are the precautions to be taken to avoid COVID-19, how does COVID-19 spread? how can people protect themselves from this infection, they did not have the adequate and the correct information about it. Whatever the police told them to do they did. Honestly the lockdown did not affect Poonam much as her work did not stop and she kept on working. She could not stop working fearing the illness, anyway the fear of illness was one side and how will they survive and live their life without food was on other hand, she had to work.

Poonam looked after the entire family. Her brother was very sick, he was suffering from Pulmonary edema. He had gone through a lot of treatment but nothing worked. Along with the expenses of the treatment they were also worried about the household expenses. Poonam had earned some money by stitching clothes and also she worked with FAT organisation’s Women Leadership Programme, with that money she was taking care of her family and household during the lockdown.

Despite the fact that Poonam was spending all the money she earned at home her brother and the sisters would not really appreciated her efforts. Poonam’s mother and father knew that she has contributed finances in the family. Since Poonam got a mobile phone from FAT organisation, and as her participation has increased in the FAT meetings and also she was occupied with her homework, these created problems for her. She would stay occupied & busy all day long with so much work she could not give much time to her home and family. Her brothers and sisters thought that she wasted all her time on the phone, they thought that Poonam only thought about her well being, and the others had to spend time working both at home and outside. No one was able to understand Poonam’s situation.

Poonam wanted to study B.A. but she did not have sufficient money for that and moreover she was being pressured to get married for a very long time. She was studying because of which she could procrastinate her marriage but now it won't be possible for her to do so. She is emotionally black mailed, they say to her “Get married, otherwise who will marry you off if we die '' ! In her community girls are married off at a very young age. Now she is 22 years old so people say “You are already grown up, her family is not letting her marry because she is earning for them, and if she gets married they won't be able to eat from her earnings.’ People kept on taunting her with such words. Poonam’s father got affected by such statements by the nearby community members and as a result he would say ill words to Poonam. Her father would say “ You are the elder one and after you, you have two more sisters. If you don’t get married, how would they?” Now Poonam has started to give up, her father and brother both got ill, father was ill from the very beginning because of which he was not working and now they do not know when the brother would recover as well !

Poonam was now tired of listening to all these statements , she has said yes for marriage but not because she wants to but just for her family's happiness. She knows that in society people force a woman for marriage so that she could be controlled. Poonam knew she had no way out, she did not have her degree neither she had a proper work, but yet she was working.

With the help of FAT organisation Poonam got adequate information of COVID – 19 and from the proper source. Poonam started to participate in the activities organised by FAT organisation, she gained knowledge about what precautions should be taken and how to prevent and protect oneself from the virus. She has now started to talk to everyone and also she listens to everyone and she likes doing that. During work in the field she now ties up her face with a cloth(Dupatta). She felt hot and she did sweat but as a precaution she kept herself covered. She would only eat once a day and then continued with her work, then she would go back home take a proper bath and would eat her food. FAT has also helped Poonam financially, which helped her stand independently. She is mentally and physically healthy and also the condition at her home is better now. Poonam wants to earn her living in the future and she is ready to do any kind of work. She wants to make her way out from the societies Lockdown.

Written by Rinku Kumari, Buxar, Bihar

This article is part of an Livelihood Action Project of FAT with young girls from Bihar and

Jharkhand to enable them to become professional story writers. The training for story writting was done by Purwa Bharadwaj, and she edited and finalised the story in Hindi. The English translation of this story was done by an intern from TISS, Aqsa and final edits by Meetu Kapoor.