Bhubaneshwar: Lady Teacher Turns Driver To Scrape Out A Living

Lady teacher turns driver: Besides being the reason for mass unemployment all around the world and wreaking havoc all around,  the pandemic of COVID-19 forced a teacher to take up the work of a truck driver for Bhubaneshwar Municipal Corporation to make ends meet

Smrutirekha Behera, hailing from Bhubaneshwar was a teacher of standards, LKG, UKG, and Class 1 at a school in the city’s Chakeisiani area preceding the first lockdown. Her school was shut down due to the restrictions in classroom teaching following an unmatched gush in the virus cases. Ater the  COVID-19 outburst, the 29-year-old lost her daily bread.

Her financial situation forced her to take up work as a driver of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation’s (BMC), which collects municipal solid wastes and transports them to the dump yard to keep the wolf from the door. Her husband, Basudev, who works in a private firm had a reduction in his salary to half of what he made, making it difficult for the couple to manage the household.

The duo had barely come out of this peril when the problems escalated with the death of her father. Besides, her mother was diagnosed with cancer last year.

Lady Teacher Turns Driver: "I have to go ahead"

On her radical turn of fate, a melancholy yet proud Behera also expresses gratitude to her fate. she said, “Being a qualified person, I opted for this work. Because I have to go ahead.” 

Behera, who studied political science at Maharishi College of Natural Law said that in 2019, the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) had organised a driving training course for about 15 women of Patharabandha slum. She had taken the training back then which helped her to get this current job.

Her husband praised his wife and said. “I had never expected that her passion to drive would bring a job for her during a time of need.”

She starts her day at 5 am and along with the other two helpers, she collects dry and wet garbage separately from places like OUAT Colony, Siripur, Gopabandhu Square, and others. She explained that the wet waste was dumped at the Micro Composting Center (MCC) in Unit-VIII and dry waste at a centre near Sainik School.

When the family was hit hard, instead of losing hope, she rose and did the needful for her family.

According to BMC Commissioner, Sanjay Kumar Singh, efforts are in order, to engage more and more women in the civic body in order to provide them livelihood during these trying times of COVID-19.

Apart from Smrutirekha, three other women are presently engaged as drivers of BMC vehicles, transporting waste in the city.