

India: Strengthening Families in COVID's Aftermath

“My daughter is very mixed in nature, she is very friendly with everyone, taking care of her brother. She loves to help others like her father. She is like her father. Her father taught her boxing, she is very much interested in boxing. Always doing boxing with me, even with others. She is intelligent and good in studies. She also loves to sing, dance and play.”
- P. Sruti

However, underneath the rhythms of caregiving and home life lies an unspoken but ever-present sense of loss. Like so many of us across the world who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, P. Sruti and her family have had to rely upon their inner resilience to face each new day, shaped by grief.
Previously, P. Sruti’s family life had a different rhythm – one of shared caregiving and someone with whom to discuss decisions about the children. When Swati was a baby and toddler, P. Sruti’s husband, P. Anil Kumar, worked for a private company while she cared for their two young children.
In May 2021, their whole world crumbled when the entire family contracted COVID-19, but P. Anil Kumar didn’t get better as his wife and children recovered. Although he received care and oxygen at a local hospital, he never returned home to his wife and children.

Keeping a Family Together After a Tragic Loss
“After the death of my husband, my son’s health condition was not good…I was also mentally disturbed and financially very weak…I faced the problem to fulfil the immediate needs of my children and also faced the financial problem for the admission of my daughter at school, but with the support of my maternal uncle, it was possible.”
- P. Sruti


Fortunately, Swati and Bhaskar were identified through an initiative that conducted outreach and provided virtual case management support as part of a COVID-19 emergency response with support from Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) India, local partner ARUNA, and the Government of India, so that a loving, resilient mother could continue caring for her children in their home.


Looking Towards the Future

P. Sruti has also taken three months of training to pursue a potential job opportunity with a company, while exploring several other options to provide for her family. “In the future I am planning to do any business” she said. “I am thinking to start a grocery or stationery shop."
When she shared gratitude for support accessing government financial and food support, critical help that kept her family intact, she referred to the months following her husband’s death as “our crisis.” And now, “I feel confident that someone is there for my family.”
To learn more, about Changing the Way We Care (CTWWC) India, click here
Statistics from the Imperial College of London’s COVID-19 Orphanhood data:
- Estimates of loss of primary caregiver: 2,227,600 (death of one or both parents or death of custodial grandparents)
- Estimates of children losing primary or secondary caregivers: 3,495,000 (death of one or both parents, death of custodial grandparents, and/or death of other co-residing grandparents)