Teachers doing menial jobs to make ends meet

Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Jalandhar, November 14

It was a ‘black’ Diwali for Kartar Chand, a teacher of Government Primary School, Dhangu road, as he returned home as late as 4:30 am the next day. He was busy ferrying people in his autorickshaw.

Employed with the state Education Department for the past 15 years, Kartar drives the auto after school to make ends meet. As an ETT teacher, his Rs 5,000 salary isn’t enough to sustain his family of five.

As these teachers are given meagre salaries and that too after months, many of them are doing menial side jobs.

Even as the government credited double salaries to many employees including teachers, on Diwali, and then quickly withdrew the money, terming it as a software glitch, over 22,000 teachers of the state were not given their long-pending dues even during the festive season. They include 5,178 teachers of the 5178 Union (who have been without salaries for nine months), 8,886 SSA/RMSA teachers (without salaries for four months), 7,800 EGS teachers (no salaries for three months) and about 950 volunteers of the Inclusive Education for Disabled (IED) programme (unpaid for two months).

Kartar Chand (MA, ETT), an EGS teacher, said, “I once contemplated suicide but then I thought about my father, wife and two sons who need me. I am the sole breadwinner. I and many others had joined the teaching service in the hope that we will be promoted after three years. However, even after 15 years, I am merely getting Rs 5,000. I am overworked and at times unable to pay my kids’ mounting fee, but we can’t give up. Even after plying an auto rickshaw, I make just enough money to make both ends meet.”

Nishant, a B.Ed teacher at a primary school in Kapurthala, said, “I have been serving as a waiter for many years. My job pays me merely Rs 5,000 a month. I get free from school at 3 pm after which I go home to have a quick meal and then work at a restaurant for the rest of the day. I got married a few years ago but my wife left me as I was earning too little.” As he has not received his salary for the past three months, he also washes cars from 6 am to 7 am for a mere Rs 50 per car.

Education Secretary Krishan Kumar, said, “While the Union Government has passed its amount of Rs 15,000 per head for teachers, an additional fund has to be raised to pay their salaries. We have written to the Finance Department for the payment of this money and it shall be paid as soon as the amount is released.”