Exams bring a pinch of worry to every student’s mind. But for Sandra Babu, a native of Alappuzha district in Kerala the amount of worry was bigger. She had no means available to travel to her examination hall.
As Kerala too took the way of lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19 infection, the ferry service which used to take Sandra to her school too had shut down. This eleventh standard student and her parents who are daily wage workers were left hopeless. It was sure for them that their daughter would miss the exams which were scheduled on last Friday and Saturday.
As a last resort, Sandra contacted the Kerala’s State Water Transport Department (SWTD) and shared her grief. Who thought they would send in a seventy seat boat just for her!
“I thought I would miss the examinations as I didn’t have any means to reach my school. But then, I contacted the SWTD office and informed them of my plight. They understood my situation and promised to send a boat. I am really proud of the SWTD and I don’t know how to share my happiness”, says Sandra.
The seventy seat boat having five crew members carried this 17 year old to her school through the world famous backwaters of Kuttanad. The boat took her from a jetty near her home in MN Block, Alappuzha district to Kanjiram jetty in Kottayam district, where her school is situated.
The five member crew then waited at the Kanjiram jetty which is right in front of her school till she finished her exams and then dropped her back around 4pm. The water transport department’s empathetic gesture has brought them laurels from every corner of the Kerala society.
A parallel arrangement of hiring a motor fitted boat would have costed Rs 4,000 a day. The SWTD boat took her to and fro for just Rs 18 a journey i.e. Rs 9 for one way. Shaji V Nair, director of the SWTD said the officials didn’t think twice to help her. “The Government as well as our minister gave their full support for opening the service”, says Mr. Nair, who himself is a father of a girl studying in plus one, just like Sandra.