Guest teachers deserve sympathy

Ravi Bhushan

In Haryana, guest teachers are a disappointed and harassed lot. They are at the mercy of the state administration for their retention in service and remuneration. They have just been reduced to casual labourers having restless and sleepless nights. In Karnal, which is represented by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, a guest teacher, Maina Yadav, is sitting on an indefinite fast. She has tonsured her head to remind the BJP government of the promise made in its manifesto before the 2014 Assembly elections. Guest teachers staged demonstrations in support of their demands even when the Congress was in power (2004-2014). In fact they were appointed by the Congress government in December 2015.  

In Indian society, teachers hold a special status. Teachers are considered builders of the nation and are kept in high esteem. During the freedom struggle, the contribution of teachers was unparalleled. After Independence as well, many dynamic leaders emerged in all walks of life. 

In 2005, when government schools across Haryana were facing a shortage of teachers, it was decided to appoint guest teachers. At the local level, DEOs, BEOs and principals were authorised to select candidates, as per the requirement up to March 31, 2006. Obviously, it was a temporary arrangement and should have been followed by regular recruitment to make up for the shortage of teachers, but it did not happen. 

In the beginning, the guest teachers were paid remunerations period wise and later these were converted into consolidated monthly salaries. There was no policy to give them annual increment. For a rise in their consolidated monthly salary, they were at the mercy of the government of the day.  

As the time rolled by, vote bank politics and hollow promises by political leaders made the issue more complex. Guest teachers were even promised that their services would be regularised in due course. The pervious Congress government raised their consolidated monthly remunerations from time to time.  However, guest teachers in the face of job insecurity and low salaries kept running from post to pillar, and at times knocked at the doors of politicians and the Punjab and Haryana High court.  Alas, nothing concrete has come out so far.  

Meanwhile, guest teachers came together and organised themselves and started staging demonstrations.  A disgraceful incident took place at Rohtak in 2010 when a guest teacher, Raj Rani, lost her life in police action. So far, several guest teachers have died of ailments caused by depression, stress and anxiety disorder for obvious reasons. One more significant spontaneous development is that a majority of them are in the 45 to 50 age group. At this stage of life, they are under social and economic obligations and the political leadership should not ignore these factors while deciding their fate. They have been suffering from job insecurity and consequent physical and mental agony and harassment.  

It may be recalled that the existing dilemma of guest teachers in Haryana is an example of a half cooked and ill-advised policy rendered by the bureaucracy to their political masters, irrespective of the party in power.  Socio-economic factors have never been taken into account to decide the issue. The policy to appoint guest teachers was formulated on the pretext of addressing the issue of widespread unemployment. The irony is that those who formulated this policy and gave it the go-ahead are enjoying all privileges in life while guest teachers are suffering. Well-informed politicians and bureaucrats are aware that under no circumstances the services of the guest teachers can be regularised.

The way forward for the government is to accord  guest teachers pay parity with regular teachers without further delay and allow them to retire at the age when regular government employees do. Around 15,000 guest teachers are once again out on the streets, seeking justice. The government must consider their overall profile emphatically. 

(The writer teaches English at Divine Public School, Shahabad)