COVID-19: Indian women take up unconventional jobs as the battle for survival gets tougher

Patna: Women in Bihar are taking up unconventional jobs to support their families as the battle for survival gets tougher by the day. While some have been pushed to the brink due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, several others have taken up unconventional jobs due to the dire situation that their families are currently in. And given the nature of some of the jobs taken up by women, the desperation to break the stereotypes is quite evident.

Of all, the case of Sukhchain Devi is quite fascinating. A resident of Basaul village in Bihar’s Sitamarhi district, the 35-year-old woman has been visiting the houses of local villagers and has been either shaving the beards of men or giving them haircuts, a job that until the other day was considered a male domain.

The woman was prompted to take up such an unconventional profession after her husband, Ramesh Thakur, became jobless following the more-than 70-day nationwide lockdown that dried up all their financial resources. Her husband, an electrician by profession, was the lone earning member in the family. The lockdown not only cost Ramesh his job, but also left him stranded in Chandigarh where he worked.

“So, I decided to visit the houses of the local villagers and give them haircuts or shave their beards to earn money,” the woman told the Gulf News over the phone on Friday. She has three little children, with the eldest in Grade 7.

Attaining perfection

According to Sukhchain, she had picked up the finer points of a barber’s job from her husband, some two years back, out of sheer curiosity and later started giving regular haircuts to her children to attain perfection! On a few occasions, she had also shaved the beards of the male members at home, though she had never stepped out of her house in the serious pursuit of this as a source of income. 
But the lockdown changed everything. Of late, she has been moving from village to village, looking for clients as the battle for survival got tougher by the day.

“Prior to the lockdown, my husband had been sending money every month to run the household. But after he lost his job, we were pushed to the brink of starvation. I had no option other than stepping out of my home and somehow earn money to stay alive. So I decided to use my hair-cutting skills,” she said, earning something between Rs150 to Rs200 a day.

Desperate situation

According to her, majority of the villagers give flour, rice or other grains in return for her services. “Even if some pay cash, it is too little. Some pay Rs10 while others pay Rs20, but I have no option other than accepting whatever I get. The same people pay nothing less than Rs50 for a haircut when they visit the salons,” she rued.

She said initially, she was quite hesitant touching the males, but gradually she overcame it given the desperate situation she was in. She wants to educate her three children — two sons and a daughter — so that they can land decent jobs when they grow up.

Equally interesting is the story of two sisters — Rani Kumari, 17, and Renu Kumari, 15, who have been running their father’s job of repairing punctures. Rani appeared for her Class 10 final examination this year. Her younger sister Renu is in Grade 10. They are from the Chautarava village in West Champaran district.

The young girls were compelled to take up this unconventional job after their father Vikram Sharma suffered paralytic attacks some four years back, leaving him bed-ridden and drying up the family’s only source of income.

‘My daughters are my pride’

“Initially, very few people would turn up at our shop since they thought we girls won’t be able to do the job with perfection. But later on, as they were satisfied with our work, they started visiting us more often,” said Rani.

Today, the girls are experts at their job. Fixing punctures even in the large tyres of heavy vehicles such as trucks or cars is not a problem for them, as they deftly remove the tubes and fix the problem in no time. They have been doing this work for the past five years to support their family, but during the lockdown, their skills came in handy more than ever before — with an incapacitated father at home and hardly any other avenue available to earn a living. 
“My daughters are my pride,” says Vikram, adding that it is because of Rani and Renu that the family is running smoothly and he is still alive.