Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his deputy Manish Sisodia turned counsellors for parents and children on Saturday as they addressed their concerns regarding the COVID-19 lockdown, answering their questions through video-conferencing.
The over half-an-hour talk, titled 'Parenting in the time of Corona', saw the chief minister and the deputy CM answer a variety of queries, ranging from how can the parents answer questions from their children with regard to coronavirus and keep them engaged at home to whether the summer vacation will be curtailed and if the pending exams will be held after the lockdown is lifted.
Amongst the questions answered by Kejriwal was from a parent whose five-year-old girl asked him if everyone will die because of Coronavirus. “This is definitely an extraordinary situation, and it is difficult for parents to make their children understand the restrictions. There are numerous questions in the minds of the children. The obvious answer is no, but the parents have to make children understand how Coronavirus spreads, the need for social distancing and how we can break the chain,” he said.
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Donning the hat of a parent, Kejriwal said the lockdown was an opportunity for parents and children to spend quality time together. “Parents can constructively engage the children. We need to change this difficult time into an opportunity,” he said.
The chief minister said that parents, by example, can make their children sensitive to the situation of the poor and the underprivileged, who have been hit the most by the lockdown. “When you will help people around you, when you will pay the people who work for you even if they are on leave at present, it will have a good impact on your children,” he said.
Sisodia, who is also the education minister, spoke about how it was a challenge to make small children understand what was happening and to ensure that they did not get anxious. He also said that this could be a good time for parents to learn from their children what they have learnt in their happiness class at school. Responding to a question that children are missing happiness class, he said: “The children can now teach their parents what they have learnt in the happiness class. They can teach their parents how to meditate. In fact, meditation can help beat the stress and anxiety of lockdown,” he said.
Vinay Bhushan, director, education department, who was present in the interaction, assured the students of class nine and 11 that their pending exams will not be held when school resumes, and the results will be declared within a few days of the lifting of the lockdown.
He also said that there was no plan as of now of curtailing the summer vacation, since the purpose of the break was to prevent the children from getting exposed to the extreme heat conditions of May and June.
