2 Months After Withdrawal of Hunger Strike, Bengal Para-Teachers Still in Limbo

New Delhi: More than two months have passed since para-teachers of West Bengal withdrew their hunger strike after receiving a written assurance from the Trinamool Congress-run state government that their demands of pay structure would be met within three months. However, till now, thousands of para-teachers have not got any indication that their demands will be met anytime soon, even after two meetings with the state education department.

Thousands (there are about 48,000 in West Bengal) of para-teachers had launched an indefinite protest on November 11, 2019, in Salt Lake, Kolkata, just outside Bikash Bhavan, where the office of state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee is located. When the government refused to respond to their protest, after five days they decided to launch an indefinite hunger strike on the evening of November 15.

After 27 days of the hunger strike, Chatterjee finally met the representatives of the Para Teachers’ Aikya Manch, the organisation that had been spearheading the movement, and told them that he would require some time to look into their demands. However, he did not give any written assurance, so the para-teachers decided to continue their protest.

The hunger strike went on for 28 days and was withdrawn on December 12, after the para-teachers were given a written assurance of promises made by the education minister.

Madhumita Chatterjee, convener of the Aikya Manch and one of the leaders of the movement, had told NewsClick then: “We know that a pay structure should not be created in haste. The education minister has asked us for time, and we will give him that. We were finally provided with written assurance by the state government; so, we have decided to temporarily stop our movement for now. If in three months the state government does not take any step to meet our demands, we will start a larger movement.”

The para-teachers have been demanding introduction of pay bands for their salaries for a long time now. At present, they receive a consolidated pay, but none of the benefits provided to regular teachers. If the pay band is introduced, para-teachers will be entitled to benefits like regular increments, dearness allowance, medical allowance, and child care leaves. They have claimed that they are entitled to the same pay scale as assistant teachers.

However, the three months’ time that the government had sought will soon get over. Chatterjee told NewsClick: “We have had two meetings with the state education department, but nothing has come out of these meetings. The government has not given us any indication that our demands will be met. We were told that para-teachers’ across the state will be regularised after due process, but that is not what we want.”

Chatterjee said the government has said nothing about when this process will start, and even if it does, the para-teachers who are approaching the age of retirement will not be eligible for regularisation. “If they have to amend the rules for regularisation to meet our demands, so be it. We will not step back,” she added.

On Friday, para-teachers from across the state held a meeting to decide the future course of action. Chatterjee said: “There were some para-teachers and some organisations who did not join us during our movement. Today, even those people joined us. We have only one demand -- same pay for similar work. If they can pay the permanent teachers and provide them with all benefits, we too deserve that.”

The Aikya Manch had told NewsClick that under the Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, the state government provides 40% of the salaries of the para teachers, the remaining 60% is provided to the state government by the central government. Chatterjee alleged that para teachers in West Bengal have been receiving the 40%—supposed to be provided by the West Bengal government—while the state government utilises the 60% provided by the central government for other expenditures. Education Minister Partha Chatterjee had denied this allegation on November 27, 2019.

Chatterjee said, “We do not want a salary hike. We want a pay structure, grade pay with regular increments, and all the benefits that come with it. And we will continue our movement on a much larger scale if the government fails to meet our demands. When chief minister Mamata Banerjee had come to power in the state for the first time, she had said that she would regularise all para-teachers within three years. We want to ask her, what happened to that promise?”