Gurugram govt teachers 'burdened' with verification of family IDs

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, March 21

Hundreds of government school teachers in Gurugram have been a harried lot for the past three months as they have been entrusted with the task of verifying Parivar Pehchan Patras of residents.

We’re no call centre employees

People are suspicious. They don’t trust us and refuse to share the details. Some people abuse us and pass lewd comments. We are teachers, not call centre employees. Hindi teacher

Women teachers harassed

Women teachers are facing a lot of problems as people don’t trust sharing their details with them. A majority of women teachers are harassed over the phone or rebuked when they visit people’s houses. Ashok Thakran, former president, Haryana school lecturers Assn

According to teachers, the extra work has meant loss of teaching hours which, they fear, may reflect in the board results. The Parivar Pehchan Patras is an e-governance scheme to promote “paperless” and “faceless” delivery of services to citizens, according to the state government. Income is the main criteria for identifying eligible beneficiaries under the state government’s Parivar Pehchan Patra initiative for several welfare schemes.

Each school in the district has been given more than 5,000 Parivar Pehchan Patra applications for verification. The teachers are required to call up each family to verify names, age, children’s school names, address and professional details. Most of the times, this turns out to be a harrowing experience.

A Hindi teacher on the condition of anonymity said, “People are suspicious. They don’t trust us and refuse to share the details. Sometimes, they don’t respond to calls. Worse, they block our mobile numbers. Some of them abuse us and pass lewd comments. Since teachers make calls from their mobile phones, people have their numbers and send lewd messages later. This is very humiliating. We are teachers, not call centre employees.”

She further said the verification of Parivar Pehchan Patras ate into teaching and personal time. “Teachers are occupied with this work at home as well,” added the Hindi teacher.

Teachers have to visit houses of those who don’t respond to calls.

Another teacher of a primary school said, “At one of the houses, the man of the family, a rickshaw-puller, was drunk when I visited him. A few men gathered there. They abused me and chased me out. A woman pushed my colleague. A majority of migrants have shifted to some other place, making it difficult for us to find them.” The teachers said they were being served showcause notices for refusing to do the duty.

Haryana School Lecturers Association former president Ashok Thakran said, “Teachers are not professional data collectors. They have always done official duties, but this one is a nightmare. Women teachers are facing a lot of problems as people don’t trust sharing their details with them. A majority of women teachers are harassed over the phone or rebuked when they visit people’s houses.”