Sadla, a quaint little village with scorching heat and a total of 295 households, according to 2011 census, lies at the border of Surendranagar and Ahmedabad districts in Gujarat. The village has a literacy rate of 21.3% (2011) – a small percentage that Sonal contributes to. Sonal is 27 years old, lives in JunaSadla and is one of the very few girls in the village who successfully graduated to get a degree in Arts. She is now hard at work preparing to appear for GPSC exams. Sonal, the only one with a steady income in her family of 7, quit her job at the Community Health center (CHC), in Patdi  town as it was difficult for her to find safe commute from her village, located in an interior geography four kilometers from Patdi.

This feat, however, required immense support and contribution from her entire family, including her younger siblings. While one of her brothers is estranged and does not live with the family anymore, Sonal, her parents and 3 of her other siblings live in a kuccha house next to the ration shop in Juna Sadla(Old Sadla). While her youngest brother is studying in the 7th grade, her parents and her sisters double up as agricultural labourers making Rs. 100 for a 6 hour work day and running a small family business of making kolsa(coal) as a supplement to their income. The money from all this keeps food on their table but is still not enough to repair the multiple leaks in their mud-built house from all the rain water.

Making coal from the Babool tree, Ganda Bavar, or Mad Babool as it is locally called, was legalized in Gujarat only a decade ago. The 40kg gooni of coal which is so much hard work that it takes all the life out of a family, sells for a measly amount of Rs. 250. Sonal’s family sells these to small hotels and chai kedhaabe(small tea stalls).

As lockdown hit though, the hard working family was left jobless, all 6 people holed up in one dark corner of their leaking house. Her sisters got some work in the fields for the first few days of lockdown which made the family richer by a sum of Rs. 3000, but after that money was hard to come by. Not wanting to take loans or borrow money, the family stuck together, burned a hole in their savings and managed with whatever they had. Government ration, which the family received four times in the last 4 months proved to be extremely helpful for their survival.

The roof of their house fell last monsoon which they have not been able to repair and the leak now is so bad that the family had to shift all their samaan into the house of a distant relative next door, to keep it from getting ruined in the rain.  Sonal’s father developed a breathing problem a couple of years ago – possibly from all the fumes from burning wood to make coal – for which he requires medication every few months.

It is the third week now that her parents are working in MGNREGA. She says the money from that must have been transferred in their account but they haven’t been able to go to the bank because the bank is in Patdi and they are scared as a few people tested positive for Covid19 and the town is in partial lockdown . Plus it will cost them a days wage , which they can ill afford/ costs money. Sonal spoke to us, with not a word of complaint about her situation, and informed us in the end that she is studying hard for her civil exams and hopes to get a good job soon on the back of her college degree and a certificate in basics of computer. It was heartening  to hear that Sonal’s mother,  married at the age of 12 herself, is supporting her daughter’s education and although pushing her to get married, not stopping her from dreaming of a better life.
Case Study reported by: SWATI Team
Location: Gujarat

‘Lockdown is just another opportunity to study’

According to 2011 census, the literacy gap between genders in rural Gujarat is as high as 20%. With the lockdown, it is predicted that a lot of girls will drop out of school due to increased restrictions and public spaces becoming more and more constrained. It is  also assumed that the percentage of marriages and child marriages are likely to go up in rural India for a plethora of reasons. There are stories like that of Sonal, though, which help us believe that all is not lost. Although it is important to think about how we can supplement the efforts of Sonal and those of her family to make sure that she gets all the needed support so that she and girls like her do not fall into the economic abyss of rural India which has a significantly higher impact on women as compared to men.