New delhi: A class XI Delhi Government school student — Ammar Afzal — has been supporting his family since the nationwide lockdown in March and has more than doubled his profits selling face-masks since then.
Millennium Post had earlier reported about his effort to sell masks in August and Afzal has garnered support from several NGOs since then and has now taken his business to newer heights.
"I started with selling 10 masks a day at Rs 2 and now I sell 20,000 masks in a day. Now, I go to markets and sell bundles of masks as well. Initially, I sold only from home and to people in the neighbourhood," Afzal said.
Afzal's brother and father both lost their jobs owing to the COVID-19-induced lockdown this year, leaving the 17-year-old 10th standard graduate with no option but to think of ways to earn for the survival of his family of five.
The Class-XI science student had topped his batch at the Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya No.1 in Mori Gate in the 10th board examinations this year with 70 per cent and now plans to pursue a career in medicine. "The road to MBBS is through science subjects, so I will study hard in all the science subjects," said an ambitious Ammar.
His knowledge accumulated from the Entrepreneurship Mindset Class (EMC) in school helped him to start his business, he said. Afzal gets his raw material in three qualities and accordingly sells the masks at Rs 2 or Rs 1.5 or Re 1, depending on the quality of the mask.
His brother lost his job at a private shop during the lockdown while the kirana shop where his father worked, was also shuttered.