An Uninvited Guest and Gift of Orphanhood

 

 

Did all the dishes. Checked…

Cleaned the kitchen platform. Checked…

Chopped the vegetables. Checked…

I checked everything before calling my mistress. Today she approved my work with a slight nod of her head. Still, what I was striving for, a smile and a softness in her eyes were missing.

 I landed at her door a few weeks back. One of my distant relatives arranged this job for me.

“Now onwards this is your home. You should work here like you are working for your own home. Madam is just like your Aai. Don’t ever give her any reasons to complain.” He advised me before taking leave.

Madam hired me as a maid and had some expectations from me. I was trying my best but this was all very new to me. For a ten years old girl, who never did any house chores and who was only asked to study and play.

Once, I was also the apple of my Aai, Baba’s eye. Baba used to call me ‘princess’. We were not rich but Aai, Baba took good care of me. Aai wanted me to study well and had dreamed of a government job for me.

I still remember that day, when my result was declared. I stood first in the class. Baba brought my favorite butterscotch ice cream.

The next day, the lockdown was declared due to some uninvited guests in the world. This dreadful virus created devastation in so many lives including mine. I never wanted this virus to enter the world leave alone my home. I and Aai got confined to the house but baba needed to work.

Schools, offices, and shops all got closed. Baba too stayed at home for few days. But he needed money to feed three mouths. So, he had to move out of the house for work.

Both Aai and I were worried for Baba.

Few months passed and things were returning to normal or we thought so when baba caught this deadly virus. He was not keeping well for few days and Aai was taking care of him.

They didn’t allow me to come near them. Aai too contracted the virus after a few days. They needed medical care but none was available. No one came to help us. Finally, when they got the medical care, it was too late. Both left this world leaving behind me, all alone.

I was hungry and my neighbours fed me. One of them managed to contact some of my relatives and one of them took me along with them, reluctantly. After a few weeks, I reached here.

This family is nice. But I miss my Aai, Baba. More so, when they snuggle and caress their kids. It seems like ages when someone cuddled me. I hugged myself and cried through the night, till sleep took over me.

This uninvited and unwanted virus has taken everything from me and many more children like me.

Sooner or later this virus has to leave this place but the marks left by this virus will take their own sweet time before they get erased.

P.S. One of the secondary impacts of COVID-19 is children orphaned or bereft of their caregiver. These children often face adverse consequences, including poverty, abuse, and institutionalization.

 Globally, more than a million children experienced the death of their caregivers. Orphanhood, defined by UNICEF as the death of one or both parents and the death of caregivers can have severe consequences. As deaths occur within weeks, children and family members are not prepared for the trauma they experience. This can impact children in the form of developmental delays, abuse, mental health problems, sexual violence, and poverty. There is the risk of adolescent pregnancy, the risk of suicide, and an increase in cases of chronic illness and HIV.

As per the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), more than 30000 children in India have lost a parent or were abandoned due to COVID-19.

Maharashtra has been the worst affected.

We controlled COVID-19 eventually but the childhoods of the children who are orphaned due to this virus are never going to come back.