New Delhi: Mohammad Faizi has not received his salary since March. He has been unable to pay the school fees of his two daughters. Mohammad Faizi is a mathematics s teacher himself. However, to eke out a living he is now selling cloth bags at a weekly market at the Dilshad Garden here.
Mohammad Faizi teaches students of classes 6-8 at a provate school here. He has been taking online classes. However, he has not received his salary since the lockdown began in March to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Weekly markets in the national capital had remained shut since March-end due to the coronavirus lockdown. The markets reopened Monday after the Delhi government allowed it till August 30 on a trial basis.
Faizi is resident of Shahdara. The maths teacher lives in a two-room house with his elderly parents, wife and two daughters, aged five and 10.
“My friends have helped me financially, but I cannot ask them for more,” Faizi said. “We have been managing somehow. I could not pay the school fee of my daughters, so I am teaching them myself now,” he added.
Faizi took online classes during the day Tuesday. He reached a weekly market in Dilshad Garden Tuesday evening to sell cloth bags. Those have been made by one of his friends.
“My friend manufactures these bags. He suggested I could sell them in the market and keep the profits,” Faizi stated, as he waited for customers. Faizi said that knows that the school will not be able to pay his salary for some more time.
“Many families have been rendered jobless due to COVID-19. Many people like me are unable to pay their children’s school fee. So the schools, too, are finding it difficult to pay their teachers,” he pointed out.
Faizi however, asserted that he wants to keep teaching his students. “I want to teach during the day and do something else in the evening to make ends meet. That’s why the weekly market seemed a better idea,” he said.
One his first day, Faizi could not sell anything. Police asked the vendors to vacate the space after it became overcrowded.
“The coronavirus pandemic has affected millions of lives. I’m one among them,” Faizi, the only child to his parents, said. “I just hope that my family remains safe. I cannot afford medical expenses in my present financial condition,” he signed off.
