Online study woes: To fund children’s online studies, many MP families sink into debt

Bhopal, Oct 2 : Kumer Singh, a resident of Amarpura village in Madhya Pradesh’s Sehore district, plunged into debt as he had to buy mobile by taking loan for his daughter’s online education during the Corona epidemic.

Closure of educational institutions due to the epidemic and then online education created trouble for many poor families of Madhya Pradesh, because these poverty-stricken families had to buy Android mobiles for their children’s education, for which they took a loan. And now they have to pay a huge price in the form of interest.

Kumer Singh is not the only person who has bought an Android phone by taking a loan for his daughter’s education. The number of such people is much more.

Kumer Singh says that his daughter Muskan studies in class VIII. “Due to the Corona epidemic, schools were first closed and after that the emphasis was on online studies. Online studies were possible only when you have an Android phone. I had a phone with a keypad, but for the education of my daughter, we decided to buy an Android phone,” he states.

The mobile phone costed Rs 7,000, but he did not have that much amount in lumpsum, so he took a loan from a person of the village and in return paid the amount along with interest in several instalments. Several thousand rupees had to be paid as interest.

Kumer Singh says that he first bought the phone with difficulty and after that the big problem was to recharge the phone. Many a times, it was possible to recharge only after one to two weeks after the date of recharge.

Similar is the story of Lilabai Ivne of Kakaria village, her husband Bhagwant works as a labourer. She wants to educate her daughters, that’s why she bought an Android mobile for the online education of her Class VI daughter, for this she had to take a loan because she did not have enough money to buy a mobile at one go.

So she had to become a debtor for his daughter’s online education. Many times, she also had to face the problems of recharging, but she didn’t give up so that her daughter’s education would not stop.

Abid Khan, a resident of Singar Chori village in the same area, also had to get a mobile financed for the education of his children.

A teacher from the capital Bhopal, on anonymity, said that online education was a big problem for poor families because firstly they did not have mobiles and families that had mobiles had more than one child studying. Not only this, many families also faced the problems of recharging mobiles, in such a situation the teachers used to recharge the mobiles of the children.