A time was there when a teacher was considered to be a noble personality. I was told by my parents that a teachers should be treated with high respect and regard among all. Because It was only a teacher who transformed a man into a human by inculcating the good and required qualities in him in order to make him survive as a good social being in the society , and is still performing the same job with the same zeal and zest very honestly. Not only that but it is the teacher who, by holding a finger of his student in early years of his childhood , gradually makes him able to touch the hights. The people in burocracy, , advocacy, the big doctors, engineers, high political position holders, the people with high status in the society and even the scientists don’t get their positions automatically , but the good guidence of a teacher as a result of his tireless efforts from the Kindergartens to the higher education of students plays an important role in their making.
So looking on the nobility of his profession, a teacher was holding and should hold a high status in the society, because you owe the teacher that what you can’t return him back but the only thing you can do is to give a good respect to him in return. But it seems very unfortunate when the opinion strikes your mind that the status of teachers in Jammu and Kashmir is such, that the people from comming generation will rather choose to become the peons but will get disinterested to opt for the job of a teacher. Because the didnity and honour of teachers is on stake here. Without mentioning who is actually responsible for this whole mess, teachers are the worst hit of humiliation in Jammu and Kashmir in present date, the teachers, who are working on regular establishments but have been debarred from several legitimate benefits, face the cane charging by police whenever they come to protest for their legitimate demands regarding their salaries.
Firstly they only demanded their legitimate rights of salary, but now they have waged a war against the administration which seems less concerned against the indifferent attitude of government regarding their salary related issues but more concerned against the day to day humiliation of authorities with the most respectable community of teachers. From a couple of years teachers have been humiliated many a times, some times on the basis of screening test row and sometimes by discriminating them by stoping 7th pay commission to them. A tent erected from last three weeks at historical Partap Park near Lal Chowk Srinagar, the centre of summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir depicts the whole scenario regarding the reaction of teachers against the administration for its indifferent attitude with them. Actually, when the government continuously turned its deaf ear towards the woes of teachers after their countless protest demanstrations , seeking their equality in terms of salary with other state government employees, the teachers of Jammu and Kashmir chosed to hold a hunger strike from 30th August in Jammu and from 3rd September in Srinagar which is still continue and I as a regularised Rehbar-e-Taleem Teacher also spent several days and nights there as a resentment against the casual approach of government towards us.
Actually teachers demand 7th pay commission benefits in favour of a section of regularised Rehbar-e-Taleem teachers, headteachers and masters, who are being paid their salaries from centerly sponsored schemes with long delays, who have been left out from its benefits despite last time benefited with 6th pay commission. It is a grave injustice with those teachers who after working as permanent employees for more than one and a half decade, are now debarred from this legitimate right of pay hike according to 7th pay commission benefits, merely by citing an irrelevant reason that they are SSA teachers. I fail to understand why the Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers are called by the name of SSA teachers. Rehbar-e-Taleem is the scheme of state not of centre, according to which a teacher is regularised as a General line teacher after his five years good performence and the same happened. But the difference is that government payed them their salaries from the funds released from centre through Sarvaiya Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Does that determine Rehbar-e-Taleem Teachers should be called by the name of SSA teacher , when there is no where mentioned in their orders that they are SSA teachers. Releasing of salary is the concern of authorities, where from they get it is not concern of an employee, which can not violate the norms of Rehbar-e-Taleem Scheme.
Some teachers among them are spending the last years of their services in the department and are at the verge of retirement, how come is it possible for them to manage their families by choosing any other occupation at their aged lives in this expensive world. Though advisor to Governor , Mr Khursheed Ahmad Ganie accepts that the demand is legitimate and genuine but one wonders why no concrete steps have been taken to fulfill this legitimate demand relating to their salaries. A tent in Pratab Park was errected some weeks before by Teachers Joint Action Committee (TJAC) an amalgam of various teachers associations , under the leadership of its Chairman Mr Abdul Qayoom Wani who is also the Chairman of EJAC, and is still there in which a Chain Hunger Strike is going on which crossed many phases of 48 hours hunger strike each. But despite getting solidarity from the people belonging to social, political, religious and other walks of life, the teachers are not getting any attention from the side of administration. The authorities are still mum on their issues, who don’t care about the miseries of those nation builder who have been dragged to starvation and mental stress due to the unfairly dealings by responsible authorities. The tent at Pratap Park Srinagar and another at Press Club Jammu are both the symbolic indicators of teachers’ status in present era in the region, where teachers are making hue and cry for their salaries which is the right of each and every government employee.
(The author is a freelancer. His views are personal)
