Striking Teachers in Bihar Decide Not to Celebrate Holi

Patna: Vinod Singh, Gajendar Sharma, Suresh Prasad, Bhola Paswan, Harender Yadav, Mukesh Kumar and Ravi Ranjan are seven among 4.5 lakh striking contractual school teachers in Bihar, locally known as ‘Niyojit Shikshak’, who will not celebrate Holi on Tuesday.

A day ahead of Holi, a festival of colours, the striking teachers are upset with the apathetic attitude of the Nitish Kumar government towards their demands. The contractual teachers have been on strike for over 20 days now.

What has angered them that most is that the state government has directed the district education officers concerned not to pay salary to striking teachers ahead of this festiva, As a result, salaries for January and February have not been released yet on the ground that the teachers had not reported for the ongoing evaluation of copies of the Class 12th and 10th examinations.

“There will be no Holi for us. We are on strike, protesting and staging dharnas, but the government is busy taking harsh action against us by suspending us and lodging FIRs”, Vinod said.

Similarly, Bhola, another contractual teacher said Holi was for those who are happy, but we are sad and worried owing to non-fulfilment of our demands, including ‘equal pay for equal work’ and reverting to the old pension scheme.”

There are thousands like me who have no money to buy monthly ration for the family because the government refused to pay us to punish us for the strike. In this situation, where is the money to buy colours and sweets? he added.

Vinod and Bhola’s views echoed by Gajendar, Mukesh, Ravi and Harendar.

Last week R K Mahajan, additional chief secretary of education department had issued notices to all government-run schools to share the teachers attendance list and hold back the salary of January and February for all those found absent on the ground of the declared policy of ‘no work ,no pay’.

“This will be the first time that there will be no Holi celebration for us. The government has ordered not to pay us salaries ahead of the festival”, the leader of the striking teachers, Markandey Pathak, said on Monday.

Pathak told NewsClick that with no move by the authorities to even hold talks with the striking teachers and harsh action against striking teachers, “we will burn effigies of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Bihar Education Minister, Krishnandan Prasad Verma, on Holika Dahan on Monday evening to symbolise our protest.”

The strike by contractual schoolteachers, mostly of primary and middle schools, across the state entered the 22nd day on March 9. They have been on the indefinite strike since February 17, the day Class 10th examination by the Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) started. Yet, there is no move to open a dialogue with them.

More than 40,000 contractual teachers of high and higher secondary schools also joined indefinite strike under the banner of Bihar Secondary School Teachers’ Association in support of their demands. After that 1.25 lakh teachers eligibility test (TET) qualified teachers went on strike under the banner of TET Shikshak Sangathan Samiti on February 27 demanding their promotion as assistant teacher and treatment as the government employees.

The strike call has been given by the Bihar Rajya Shikshak Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, a joint platform of 26 schoolteacher associations.

Angry Samiti leaders said government “cannot force us to end strike by taking action against us. All contractual teachers are on strike and they will continue till demands are fulfilled. We are not afraid of actions and threats.” They also threatened to intensify their agitation after Holi if the government did not fulfill demands.

According to Samiti leaders, teachers were not just unhappy but also angry with the government for “deliberately ignoring” their demands of salary at par with permanent teachers in various state government schools

Brajnandan Sharma, convener of Bihar Rajya Shikshak Sangharsh Samanvay Samiti, said the striking teachers would launch a signature campaign from March 13 to garner people support in favour of their demands and on March 23 striking teachers will hold “save education save Bihar” conference.

The state government has so far acted against more than 8,000 striking teachers by suspending, dismissing and lodged cases against them.

Different organisations and associations of striking teachers have expressed dismay over the harsh or punitive action by the government against the teachers who are protesting peacefully for their rights.