Shiksha mitras demonstrate outside BJP office, raise slogans
LUCKNOW : Almost 10 days after getting their heads tonsured to protest the alleged apathy of the state government in not regularising their jobs, a large number of contractual teachers staged demonstration outside Bharatiya Janata Party office on Vidhan Sabha Marg on Sunday.
They staged protest to remind the ruling party to take up their cause so as to expedite their long pending demands. Raising slogans in support of their demand of equal pay for equal work, contractual teachers appealed the party workers to take up their matter with chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
Under the banner of Aam Shikshak/Shiksha Mitra Association, the protesters raised anti-government slogans. Some of them walked up to Mahatma Gandhi statue and staged demonstration near Hazratganj crossing.
“Thousands of contractual teachers have been staging a protest at Eco Garden in Alambagh area for the last 80 days to draw the government’s attention towards their demands. But no BJP leaders came to listen to their woes,” said Uma Devi, president of the association.
She said on July 25, hundreds of contractual teachers, including women, got their heads tonsured and several Brahmins shunned their ‘janeu’ (sacred thread) to press the demands of ‘equal pay for equal work’ and regularisation of services.
The protesters said due to state government’s apathy a number of contractual teachers are on the brink of poverty. The contractual teachers even handed over a memorandum to BJP workers addressing it to the chief minister and returned to the Eco Garden.
“Today is the 80th day of our protest and no BJP minister has turned up to pay heed to our plight,” a protester said.
The contractual teachers were appointed during the Mayawatiled Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government, and the ‘shiksha mitras’ were regularised during the Samajwadi Party regime in 2014.
However, the Supreme Court quashed the appointment of over 1.73 lakh ‘shiksha mitras’ in 2017 and declared that their contractual positions would not be converted into government jobs unless they clear the UP TET (teachers’ eligibility test).
After the apex court judgment, the salary of contractual teachers came down to Rs 3,500 from earlier Rs 38,848. Later, the Yogi Adityanath government increased their salary from Rs 3,500 to Rs 10,000 and assured them of taking steps to regularise their services.