This teacher with disability awaits her right for long

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 11

As Human Rights Day was celebrated worldwide yesterday, a teacher from a Jalandhar village with both her legs disabled was teaching students and waiting that when the right for which she has been fighting, along with other teachers, for long will be given to her.

Manjit Kumari (35), who is working with Government High School, Ladran, in Phillaur is 100 per cent physically challenged from her lower part. In her personal life too, she has suffered a lot and then she was recruited under the 5178 master cadre in 2014. But the teachers have still not got regularised and she is earning a mere Rs 7,500 per month.

She cannot move on her own and is confined to a wheelchair. Such is the condition that her old-aged father, who is a a retired Class IV employee, goes with her to drop her to the school and then in the afternoon, he again picks her up from the school.

“All this struggle and suffering is just for Rs 7,500 per month. This is what our life is,” says Manjit.

She said her father was the one who would always take her to the school and the college despite his job. “After I completed my education, the real challenge was to find a job. For interviews and counselling, it was my father who used to take me to Chandigarh and other areas,” said Manjit.

She said people would often ask her father to either send her somewhere or get her married, but he used to scold them and remains a shield for her.

“He always knew the importance of education. Though I come from a poor financial background, my father spent everything on me. Later, I cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test and now that I am a teacher, I cannot even repay him due to the government apathy. I am just waiting for the moment when I will be regularised,” she said.

For a person like me who cannot even move slightly on my own, life is difficult,” Manjit said.

Would have tried something else

She said she would have tried some other job too, but the parents are too old to even help her visit various places.

“That is why I settled for this job. But I am embarrassed that I cannot do anything for them,” she said.

Tale of Kot Sadik teacher is no less painful

The case of Manjit Kaur, who is a teacher in Government High School, Kot Sadik, is no less painful. She has also a disabled right leg. Kaur was too small when she lost her father. In the absence of any source of income, Kaur started teaching in a private school and continued her studies.

While doing a private job, she completed BEd, Masters in English and then cleared the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET). She has five siblings and by getting Rs 7,500 per month for all these years, she spent it to get her sisters married.

Kaur said she even did the job when she had to travel 50 km to reach her school.

“Despite suffering a lot in our lives, even now, we have to do rallies and dharnas to get our right,” she said.

A ray of hope

They are now hopeful that they will get regularised in January.

Rahul Sharma, president, 5178 Master Cadre Union, said the Education Minister had recently announced that the teachers would get regularised in January next year. “Hence, we have again pinned our hopes on the department,” said Sharma.

The issue

Teachers posted under the 5178 master cadre were recruited in 2014 after which they were promised that they will be regularised after three years, but four years have been passed, they are still working on meagre salaries and contractual basis.