The teachers and employees of nearly 2,000 high schools in the rural areas, who had been demanding abolition of block grant and release of grant-in-aid (GIA) in their favour, are now heaving a sigh of relief. The teachers were given less than Rs 5,000 per month which was 20 per cent of the salary of a regular teacher and again the salary had been quite irregular.
But having taken such an initiative, the Government ought not forget that another group of teachers in the 662 block grant colleges are wrestling with their cruel fate. After over 20 years of service in acute penury and mental agony, the lecturers are now given a little over Rs 5, 000 per month as block grant. It is like a wound on skin which can neither be seen nor can be shown. With so much drum beating about block grant to the 662 college teachers and employees, when somebody asks how much his salary is, a teacher gets red-faced and would rather evade the query.
About 10,000 highly qualified teachers and staff members in the 662 block grant colleges are in such a psyche that they can not live with respect. A college teacher is a roll model for a society. But over 20 years of poverty and now underpayment has made him a laughing stock.
His payment is not sufficient to earn his daily bread, let alone other bare necessities. Many of the employees in these colleges are in their late 40s or 50s. How long would they have to wait to get full grant?
These college teachers are teaching the highest number of students taking higher education in the State. But the Government has been quite negligent about providing sound infrastructure to the colleges or good pay package to the teachers. The Rs 5, 733 per month to a lecturer in his late 40s or 50s looks like rehabilitating him or her, what a healthy society should not do.
Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadei has been boasting of an impressive growth in State’s economy and rise in the per capita income of the people. For sure, he is saying no nonsense. With growth in revenue and without instance of overdraft, the State has been able to eschew its erstwhile poverty tag. It is now one of the fast growing States in India with so much industrialisation and infrastructural development.
The BJD Government in Odisha has implemented the 6th Pay Commission’s recommended salary and related benefits to its employees like the advanced States in India. It is splurging on road, bridge and other infrastructural development in the countryside. But despite all this, why it is keeping the teachers in underpayment?
The block grant scheme is the brainchild of none but the BJD Government. Introduced in 2004, the scheme has made the Government able to keep five teachers at the salary of one teacher. That was a solution the Government had though the best to rehabilitate the college and school teachers who were reeling under acute poverty and the education system had gone into a complete mess. But when the State coffer has been improving, why the respectable teachers, who have already sacrificed almost 20 to 30 years of their life without payment, should be given the same paltry payment?
Few would dispute the fact that ever since the block grant has been given to the teachers of the schools and colleges, the academic situation in the institutions has been improving. The teachers have been more sincere what has come as a boon for millions of students in the far-flung rural areas. Hence, the Government now owes a duty to fulfill the legitimate demands of the teachers. Instead, applying third degree police action against them and remaining too churlish to their miseries would be tantamount to ungratefulness.
The block grant system should be dispensed with. The retirement nearing teachers have no time left to wait for regular grant any longer. The Government should pay in the format of GIA taking the seniority of the teachers into account. We have left them to wallow in poverty too long. Let us bring good days in their lives and expect much more improvement in the college education.
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