The shocking demise of Itishree Pradhan, a Shiksha Sahayak (SS) who was burnt at her school hostel in Rayagada district, not only brings to focus the over — written and over — consumed episodes of woman harassment in the State, but also the sad plight and untold sufferings of thousands of teachers in schools and colleges who are given very low and disgraceful salary by the Government under various schemes which render them easy target of a spiteful society.
The profession has been so unattractive because of the visionless policy of the Government that the persons in the job are now looked down upon and often treated with malice. Just look into the case of Itishree. An independent woman panel, which has already completed a probe after an on-the – spot visit, told that she was living in a dilapidated room alone in the school campus without minimum comfort and any provision of safety. A woman from Puri district, Itishree was working in the far-off Rayagada at low salary and without minimum facilities, including a well-furnished accommodation. None was careful how she was living. Nor was anybody concerned as to how a lone woman was being treated.
For Itishree, her job was as much challenging as conflict-ridden. Poverty, low self-esteem, isolation and insecurity went hand-in-hand with her as it is happening with thousands of lowly paid teachers in the State. Initially, she was living outside her school. But as her headmaster began exploiting her situation and started doling out mental and sexual harassment, she had little option but to shift to an abandoned room inside the school campus. She was attacked in the most gruesome way. The miscreant dared to barge into her room and pour kerosene on her before setting her ablaze, quite convinced that nothing could be most suitable a place than her insecure and isolated residence to kill her thus. Police, the district administration and her higher authorities did not care a hoot to look into her problem though the hapless teacher was repeatedly going to them seeking safety. Being a lady she was proverbially frail but being a poor teacher (SS), she was even frailer. The world does not have an ear for the poor and weak!
Itishree’s story speaks volumes about the sordid tale of lakhs of underpaid teachers, whether SS, Block Grant, para, contractual, list is very big, whom the Government has rendered laughing stocks in the society. These teachers are soft targets to be heaped upon all humiliation, deprivation and torture. Whether a teacher is in a primary school, high school or college, if his service is contractual, then his life is a hell. Start a career as an SS, you begin with a payment of Rs 1,500 per month! If it is a Block Grant case, a teacher in a high school or college has to be satisfied with around Rs 5,000 per month. These teachers have been agitating for their rightful dues since long but in vain. The State has not been unaware of the merciless treatment of the police and the Government machineries when these teachers howl about in capital’s street for hike in salary just to end up being thrashed black and blue and dispersed empty-handed.
The Government is yet to streamline a suitable pay package for the Block Grant school and college teachers, although it has been only making tall claims of having given this or that at different points of time. lakhs of students in tribal dominated rural areas are being taught by thousands of underfed teachers, whom the society finds very cheap. In the far-flung rural and tribal dominated areas, the plight of the teachers is even worse.
The Government, which has not spent a single pie for construction of thousands of schools and colleges, has simply dodged its responsibility by providing a minuscule block grant. It has never given any priority on revamping the infrastructure in the institutions like hostel, library, school campus, and so on. Only the local MPs or MlAs have released some fund under their lAD scheme for construction of some buildings. Similarly, the primary schools where crores of rupees are being spent under the SSA and myriad other schemes, it is the nexus between the contractors, officers and political leaders that favours large scale corruptions resulting in poor construction of buildings making them unfit for use within a few years.
It is obvious that the Government, which has been dilly-dallying on paying respectable salary, would ever pay any attention to ensuring a healthy work atmosphere for them. Can anybody say what can a poor block grant teacher or lecturer do with a barely `5,000 per month in this inflationary market situationIJ The Chief Minister owes an answer.ax