Teacher’s death spurs village youths to wage Covid war

MEERUT: Khanpur, a nondescript UP village in Meerut district, 90 km from the national capital, is staging a unique, spirited fight against the pandemic after a bunch of youngsters, shattered at the passing of their favourite English teacher who died struggling for a hospital bed and oxygen, vowed that their village will not go through the trauma again.
Now Khanpur has 9 oximeters, 100 thermometers, masks, santitisers, zinc and vitamin C tablets as well as other medicines that are being distributed freely to villagers. Over 200 boys and girls have formed social media groups to coordinate efforts towards finding hospital beds, oxygen, ambulances.
Local residents said 20-25 people have fallen to Covid in the village in the last one month, but it was the death of Santosh Sharma, 66, a disabled English teacher that hit the youngsters hard. Sharma, who taught at a private school and took tuition, fell ill towards April-end and died within a week, gasping for breath as she was turned away by several private hospitals.
Sharma had spent her life teaching village kids and helping shape careers of many of her students. “She is a revered figure here. Other than her English tutorials, her life itself was a lesson for us, and so was her death,” said her former student Abhishek Chikara, 27, an engineer with an automobile company in Gurgaon who coordinated with other village youngsters to set up a Covid self-help team.
The youngsters now not only clean the village daily, but have also converted the local school into a six-bed isolation ward. “Almost 99% of students from our village have learnt whatever English they know from her,” said Shawal Choudhary, 30, a primary school teacher.
A few originally from Khanpur but now settled overseas have also pitched in now. “These kids have now taken things in their own hands as they help people around them who do not have access to proper healthcare,” said Amit Chikara, 40, a native from Khanpur who now lives in London.