A class 10 student from West Bengal's Murshidabad district has been forced to turn to a hawker as the pandemic takes a toll on his family's livelihood.

Jittu Saha from Chachand High School in Samserganj had to drop out of school to earn for the family of three after his father fell ill with respiratory diseases, reports The Telegraph.

While Jittu's father was a migrant worker in Kerala where he worked as a mason, his mother earned some pennies by working in a local bidi factory. They reportedly earned enough to meet the ends and send the 15-year-old to school.

However, with the onset of the pandemic and lockdown, Jittu's father had to return to Bengal and his mother too lost her job. She hardly gets any order from the factory either.

Unwilling to send his ailing father away from home to find work, Jittu has now taken to the streets selling his biscuits, puffed rice, snacks, pickle etc.

At the end of the month, the boy feels satisfied by being able to hand over a sum of nearly Rs 7,000 to his mother, who used make a daily earning of Rs 150-200 prior to the lockdown.

Jittu is the youngest of six brothers and while the rest of them are married, he now bears the responsibility of looking after his parents.

At the end of the day, when he is on his way home, he makes the last stop in Basudevpur, where he restocks his ware from the wholesale market.

As per the report, his school's principal said that Jittu among numerous other children from middle school, who were forced to take odd jobs to make ends meet.

However, Jittu doesn't want to be counted as a drop out as he is determined to resume his tuition classes and clear his Madhyamik once the situation falls back in place and school resumes.