Barpeta, India – It has been nearly a year since 12-year-old Ayesha Siddiqa has been confined to her house in India’s northeastern state of Assam due to COVID-19 restrictions.
Her school in Gomafulbaru in the Barpeta district offered online classes, but the grade 6 student could not attend, as her parents cannot afford a smartphone.
Siddiqa lives with her parents and younger brother in a char – a remote riverine island formed by siltation of the Brahmaputra river that cuts through the state of nearly 30 million. Her father Abed Ali, 45, and mother Gulbahar Nesa grow rice on rented farmland, but struggle to make ends meet.