Samaritans go online to help people in tough times

Deepankar Sharda

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 20

Making best use of the Covid-19 pandemic, experts of various fields are helping people from different walks of life by providing them free online classes. While some promote free-study material, others help people learn a way to earn.

Entrepreneur Kiran Gill, a housewife and a mother of two, takes free-of-cost online baking classes. She also distributes free cow milk along with home-baked sweets among underprivileged children of the periphery areas.

Owner of a farming unit, Kiran has been spending the lockdown period by helping many learn a way of earning. Her followers not only include middle-class housewives, but also young enthusiasts male bakers. On any given day, the group reaches out to housewives of the periphery area to teach them some skills and help their children.

“All this started in 2019, when my son asked me to bake a cake. We are into sale and promotion of organic products. I bake every day and my work starts at around 10 am along classes. My days are not complete without baking or helping others to learn the art. If I have learnt the art by following videos, why can’t others. In these tough times of Covid-19 pandemic everyone is doing their bit, so does our group,” says Kiran.

Another in the chain is physics Prof SC Gupta, a lecturer in Chandigarh. In his share of doing a bit, Gupta is taking free online classes for students of NEET, Class 11th and 12th. Not only this, he has launched a dedicated helpline number in order to solve students’ problem anytime they needed.

Notably, coaching institutes/schools/universities are closed during the lockdown period and Gupta has created this platform to help students. Gupta teaches in a 40 minutes lecture on daily basis.

“Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic students are facing a lot of problems as all institutes are locked. The institute, which are running online classes are getting huge fees. So, in order to help students, I have started approaching kids through various online means. I started these classes through Facebook, YouTube channel and Google Meet,” says Gupta.

“I also requested parents to donate in the PM Care Fund according to their capacity. A large number of students are benefitting in the physics subject from these online classes,” adds Gupta.

Similarly, Jyoti Tewari, vedic maths head at Sharda Sarvhitkari School, is conducting free webinars as schools are shut across the world. “I have prepared over 100 videos of mathematics and vedic maths for students and uploaded these on social media so that any student can get free access to this content from comforts of his/her home,” says Jyoti Tewari. “Vedic maths was discovered by Indian Mathematician Bharathi Krishna Tirtha. It is a set of techniques to solve arithmetics in an easy and faster way. It consists of 16 sutras and 13 sub sutras, which can be used for solving arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus and conics. It increases confidence of a child in calculations. It also increases speed and accuracy in other activities too,” adds Jyoti Tewari.