The 65,000 odd para teachers in Jharkhand worked wearing black badges on Thursday and nearly 10,000 of them submitted requisitions at the concerned Sadar Police Station in their districts seeking their arrest as a mark of protest against the Government’s alleged apathy towards them.
While no incidents of voluntary arresting were reported in Ranchi, para teachers in State Capital claimed to have moved a writ petition in the Jharkhand High Court on Thursday seeking regularization of services for all those para teachers who have served for more than 10 years.
“We have moved a petition in the High Court seeking regularization of services for all such para teachers who have completed 10 years of service in Jharkhand,” said Vikrant Jyoti, President of National Contractual Workers’ Association. The developments happened on a day when the Government felicitated at least 200 regular teachers for their work in the field of education.
Education Minister Neera Yadav gave away certificates of appreciation to the teachers at the Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC) in Ranchi and lauded their dedication towards work.
However, later in the day, she dodged questions related to the para teachers’ protest at a press conference of Higher and Technical Education Department by calling the issue “out of context” and not under the purview of the conference.
The para teachers, ad hoc teachers appointed under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) programme of the centre back in 2002, impart education to students in rural and semi-urban areas of the tribal State.
Some of the schools, hardly a few kilometers from the State capital’s periphery are run by para teachers alone. These teachers often complain of irregularities in payment of their monthly honorarium, which is around Rs.10,000 for most of them. Para teachers have been up in arms against the Government since years demanding better pay and regularization of services.
The latest in the series of protests by the teachers was a strike from November 16, 2018 to January 17, 2019. On January 17, a delegation of the teachers met representatives of the Government and decided to end their strike after they were assured a pay hike of Rs.4800 and set rules for regularization of their services, the teachers said.
Sanjay Dubey, a para teacher from Hazaribag Basic High School in Barhi block, said that around 700 teachers sought their own arresting in Hazaribag alone on Thursday. “Teachers in almost all the districts went to the concerned Sadar Police Station and sought their own arresting.
Many of us have dedicated our entire lives to teaching and the Government has simply turned a blind eye to our concerns,” said Dubey, who also happens to be a member of the Jharkhand Ekakrit Para Sikshak Sangh.
