Militant demonstration of guest teachers before Haryana Bhavan
Hundreds of guest teachers of Haryana demonstrated militantly on 11th July in front of Haryana Bhavan. Notwithstanding the rainfall, despite getting drenched, the men and women guest teachers continued their protests in support of their demand to be made permanent.
Militant demonstration of guest teachers before Haryana Bhavan
Hundreds of guest teachers of Haryana demonstrated militantly on 11th July in front of Haryana Bhavan. Notwithstanding the rainfall, despite getting drenched, the men and women guest teachers continued their protests in support of their demand to be made permanent. It should be noted that these teachers, who have been teaching in various government schools across the state, have been persisting in this demand since the last ten years. The demonstration has been continuing since 17th June, in Mahendargarh, under the banner of Haryana Guest Teachers Union. As their demand was going unheard, the teachers began an indefinite fast on 23rd June. There was a plan for a big rally on 11th July in Mahendargarh. Finally, they changed the programme and came to Delhi.
Gopal Singh Rawat, a primary teacher who had come from Palwal for the demonstration said that the government had appointed 15,993 teachers in 2005. The appointment process was as per the government directives; the appointments were based on qualifications and merit. The qualification for primary teachers was 12th pass and JBT. The qualifications for secondary teachers (Master) was graduate and B.Ed, and for the high school teachers, it was a M.A degree with a minimum grade of 50%. In the beginning, the primary, secondary and high school guest teachers were paid Rs.45, Rs.55 and Rs.70 respectively for each period. They did get enjoy any paid official or casual leave; nor any maternity or sick leave. They received a monthly salary even less than minimum wage. The guest teachers used to be allotted two periods but were made to stay the whole day. Even today, they are being made to distribute the mid-day meal and iron pills.
They said that after all the struggles, they have only been able to achieve salaries that are half of what the permanent teachers are paid. They pointed out that they have been discriminated against despite carrying out equal work and being equally qualified.
Yet another teacher from Palwal, Asad Ahmad, a Hindi lecturer, said that as recently as on 15th June, the government has dismissed 3581 masters from their post on the grounds that the number of masters are surplus. According to him, the government was changing the 3-tier structure of primary, secondary and high school to a 2-tier structure whereby the number of teachers would be rendered surplus; i.e., primary school from class 1 to class 8, and high school from class 9 to class 12. The government was eliminating middle school, which has resulted in middle school teachers being redundant. All these teaching posts are standard posts and not additional.
They narrated that prior to the Haryana state elections, the guest teachers had organized an indefinite fast at Jantar Mantar for 18 days in support of their demand to be made permanent. At that time, the present Minster for Education, Ram Vilas Sharma, who was the Haryana BJP State President, came to the site of the fast on 14th February and promised that they would be made permanent and all arrears due to them would be paid. He said at that time, “you can be a guest for 5 days or even 10 days, but how can you be made a permanent guest who is made to work”!
This time around, the guest teachers had decided that they would not budge from their fast till the Chief Minister has met with them. Finally, the Chief Minister met with a 5-member delegation of the teachers. But nothing came out of this meeting. On 12th July, the teachers demonstrated at Jantar Mantar. The Chief Secretary of Haryana state met them but nothing came out of this meeting either.
Finally, the teachers decided to maintain their indefinite fast in Mahendargarh. At the time of filing this report, 11 teachers were on an indefinite fast.
Mazdoor Ekta Lehar fully supports the struggles of the Haryana guest teachers, and demands that they be made permanent.