E-Paper
Back to square one: Lockdown fear brings back memories of struggle
The 2020 lockdown announced in March last year forced many people to take up alternative career options, and now a second lockdown takes them back to square one
The 2020 lockdown announced in March last year forced many people to take up alternative career options, and now a second lockdown takes them back to square one.
Sayali Shinde, who was working as a physical education teacher in a private school in Aundh has not received salary since June 2020.
The school sent a letter to Shinde saying she has been put on non-essential position which meant Shinde’s service was not required by the school.
Shinde decided to wait a few months to let things normalise but with school not restarting in full strength, she has preferred to move ahead to explore other options.
From January 2021, Shinde gave a serious thought to starting a business and after doing research she decided to sell herbal products from her home.
“I have a six-year-old son, although my husband is earning but living in a city like Pune you need to provide financial support to the family, so I decided to start a business of selling herbal products online and offline (homecare and personal care products),” said Shinde.
Using social media in a proper way helped Shinde to get her first client.
“Whatsapp status has a big craze so I used that space for marketing my products. I did not have money to run an advertisement campaign, so this is a very good option as people keep on following status updates,” added Shinde.
New restrictions and threat of new lockdown have puzzled Shinde again as things remain uncertain with the old profession and also it puts hurdles on expansion of her new business.
“The situation is again wait and watch, another blanket lockdown will take us back to square one. I hope a middle ground is found out so that we do not have to deal with issues like last year,” Shinde said.
From PT teacher to trainer
Renuka Gaopande – was happy taking physical training classes for children until the 2020 lockdown forced her to change the profession.
With a degree of Master’s in Physical Education under her belt, Gaopande decided to offer physical training classes to women online and offline.
“Since the school does not want my service currently, I cannot continue waiting for them as we don’t know when the school will restart again. I decided to start taking fitness classes for women instead,” said Gaopande who started classes with only one client but now has eight clients for offline classes and many others for her online classes.
Gaopande currently gives a high intensity interval training (HIIT) program to ladies but now has plans to add varieties of training to her class.
HIIT is especially for those who have less time to train and now I have started getting clients who want advance courses, so the plan is to focus on expansion.
With cases rising, Gaopande has again stopped physical classes but online classes will continue.
“Charges are more for offline classes and we cannot earn the same in online classes. I hope cases are reduced so we don’t have to face another lockdown,” added Gaopande.
