Covid-19: Karnataka woman pawns mangalsutra to buy TV for children’s on-air classes

A woman in Karnataka recently pawned her mangalsutra to buy a television to enable her children to attend on-air classes, an incident that highlights the challenges posed to the poor trying to educate their children amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kastruri, a resident of Radder Naganur village in Gadag district, works as construction labourer along with her husband. Her daughter studies in Class IX while the son studies in Class VII in a government school.

She was forced to pawn her gold mangalsutra to raise Rs 20,000 to purchase a TV set so that her children could continue to study by watching education programmes telecast on government-run DD Chandana channel.

“They would initially watch the program on a neighbour’s TV set. Unfortunately, sometimes the neighbours would want to watch some other program and they would miss their classes. So, unable to see them struggle and since we want to provide a good education to our children, I decided to pledge my mangalasutra to buy a TV,” Kasturi told local media.

She also said that the teachers at her children’s government school had asked students to watch the lessons on the Chandana channel to continue their learning. Schools have been shut due to the Covid-19 pandemic and students are being encouraged to learn online.

With the Rs 20,000 she borrowed, Kasturi brought a TV set for Rs 14,000 and rest was used for household expenses.

After learning about the incident, district in-charge minister CC Patil said that the government would help Kasturi.

However, former chief minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy said that this was an indication of the challenges that poor parents were facing due to the ongoing pandemic. He also demanded that the government come out with a scheme to help such poor parents.

Meanwhile, the pawnbroker decided to return the mangalasutra to Kasturi after he came to know about the reason why she borrowed the money.

Mahendra, Tahsildar of Nargunda taluk speaking to HT on phone said “Now the entire incident has been resolved.”