उम्र छोटा काम बड़ा I Big Task At A Young Age

She is small, she is lovely | She may be young but she is fierce

This story is of a 14 year old girl. Her name is Shivani Kumari. She lives in a small village in Jharkhand. She studies in Class 8th in a government school that is near her house. Her mother is a cleaner at the school and her father works at a clothes store.

As the effect and impact of COVID 19 was felt all around the world, everyone was pushed to taking precautions to keep themselves safe. We learnt to wash our hands for 20 seconds, wear masks and maintain hygiene at all times. But very few people had information about this disease in the beginning.

COVID-19 resulted in a lockdown across the country and suddenly everyone was locked in their house. This resulted in people needing help in different fronts. This was a time when assistance at hand was less, but need was more. In this situation, Shivani emerged as someone who stood up and helped people. She loved to help others and grabbed all opportunities to do so. When the government decided to distribute soap and pads to all students in government schools, Shivani was amongst the first ones to reach out to help. Together with her teachers, she distributed soap to all children and pads to girls. During the lockdown, whenever something came from the district administration for distribution, some teachers and children came to school to help.

All the students could not come to school. Particularly those who are called “lower caste”. The pad distribution could not reach girl students there. Their homes were far away and information about this distribution did not reach them. But everyone was in need during this Corona time. In such a situation, Shivani and some of her friends decided that they will reach the girls who have not come to school. With permission from her teachers, Shivani started this mission with her friends. They gave soaps and pads to everyone. She also took very good care of her safety during that time. It was her responsibility to ensure her friends also follow these safety guidelines well.

Along with taking up the responsibility for distributing soaps and pads, Shivani was also responsible for disseminating information about COVID-19 to the villagers. She spoke about menstruation and the importance of hygiene without hesitation. She was doing her work with a different kind of enthusiasm and dedication. Usually, girls are shy to talk about pads, but Shivani would calmly gather information from her teachers in detail and share them with her friends. Not only this, she also shared information with her family which was very important at that time. Shivani is courageous and shows a lot of potential at a very young age. Her age is small, but what she did is comparably a big task.

COVID-19 had an impact on her personal life as well. A problem that their family had earlier recovered from, started again during the lockdown. Few years back her father was sent to stay with relatives in Delhi because he had the bad habit of drinking alcohol, abusing and beating others. He was back again now. Shivani and her family started getting upset with him. He stayed at home all day. He used to fight with his parents (Shivani’s grandparents) after drinking alcohol! He would also abuse and beat up her mother and her siblings.

One day, when Shivani's mother came back home from work, Shivani’s father started abusing her. Soon things escalated. Shivani’s father beat her mother very badly. Shivani’s mother was hurt badly and had to be taken to a doctor next door. Her wounds were bandaged. At that time, the thought of pressing domestic violence charges did not come to anyone. The children were scared seeing the violence at home. Because of the lockdown, everyone had to deal with this violence.

As 3 months passed, things got worse at home. Shivani's grandparents were also upset about it. The continuous shouting, swearing and physical violence was a cause of worry and stress for them too. But what to do? Meanwhile, Shivani's mother became weaker day by day and the children were also impacted negatively. Neither did they get good food, nor a good environment to study. Seeing things getting worse, everyone thought that something would have to be done.

Shivani came up with an idea. She wondered if her father could be sent away like last time. She spoke to her grandfather, “We have a field in the village. And the village is not too far. Please ask the next door uncle to take Papa to the village in his car and leave him there. It will be good if Papa does some farming there. And there will be no more fights here.”

Grandpa agreed with Shivani. Shivani's grandparents talked among themselves - They cannot have their own son jailed. There is no other solution. What can they do if he would not lose his habit of drinking alcohol?

When the next day this came to Shivani’s father knowledge, he straightaway refused. He came home drunk that evening and started yelling. At that time, only Shivani and her mother were at home. Shivani got anxious seeing her parents fight again. Her father again started beating up his wife very badly. Unable to silently witness this any further, Shivani gathered her courage and went to summon her neighbours together. A crowd gathered quickly and they intervened. A little while later when other members of the family returned, they immediately sent her father off to the village. Through her wit and presence of mind, Shivani saved her mother and her family from further violence. Life is better now and her father too is well in the village.

Written by Laxmi Sharma, Giridih, Jharkhand
This article is part of an Livelihood Action Project of FAT with girls from Bihar and
Jharkhand to give them an experience of writing stories professionally. 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 Priyanka Sarkar.