Teachers wait for jobs and justice

The Hindu

4 hours ago

Payel Dutta, 35, and Smritikana Roy, 33, sit on the footpath outside Bikash Bhawan in Kolkata's Salt Lake area on a sweltering afternoon. They are writing to the President of India Droupadi Murmu, asking for a restoration of their jobs as teachers. Either that, or they seek permission for 'voluntary euthanasia'. Bikash Bhawan is the headquarters of West Bengal's State Education Department, and Dutta and Roy teach mathematics and English, respectively.
Two months ago, the Supreme Court annulled the appointment of 25,752 teachers and non-teaching staff in State-run schools. The appointments had been made in 2016 by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), the body that holds the entrance examination for school jobs. Since then, Bikash Bhawan has become the site of protests of those whose appointments stand cancelled. Women and men, many in their 30s and 40s, assemble outside the blue and white government building.
Wiping her tears, Dutta, who teaches in Murshidabad Indrani Hasna Mayani High School, says, 'When I took the exam in 2016, I was unmarried and did not have a child; I had free time to prepare. Now, I have in-laws also to care for. I will have to compete with younger people to get re-appointed at a job which I worked hard to get.'
Roy, who teaches at Baharampur Mahakali Pathshala, says growing up she had always looked at teaching as a noble profession, but now she struggles. 'We were beaten up, dragged on the roads, and we have even shed blood on the streets. We have lost all self-respect. Our students see us sitting on the roads, getting baton-charged by the police. Will they ever respect us like before?' Roy says. She too is a mother now and can't imagine going through the recruitment process all over again. Most of those recruited in 2016 had worked for about five years before their dismissal earlier this year.
A series of events
The West Bengal school recruitment scam came to light in July 2022, when former State Education Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee were arrested by the Enforcement Directorate. The Central investigating agency recovered cash, jewellery and immovable property worth ₹103.10 crore linked to the Minister and his aide.
So far, the investigation has resulted in scores of arrests that include officials of the State Education Department, politicians associated with the ruling Trinamool Congress, and touts. The touts would allegedly offer jobs in State-run schools in return for money that was then paid 'upwards'. The SC has stipulated that 'selectees with purported evidence and material indicating wrongdoing' were to relinquish their jobs immediately.
After the April 3 Supreme Court judgment annulling all the appointments, protests began. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met those who had lost jobs on April 7. 'We have 'Plan A, B, C, D, and E' ready. Did you receive any notice terminating your job? You go and work.... Who has stopped you? Continue with your work,' she assured the teachers.
The first incident of violence occurred on April 9, when protesters stormed the office of the District Inspector (DI) of schools in Kasba in south Kolkata and a scuffle broke out. In videos circulated after, a police officer was seen kicking a protesting teacher, which prompted outrage.
On April 17, the Supreme Court allowed the teachers 'who claim that they were validly selected and have committed no wrongdoing' to continue in the State's government and aided schools. They are to be retained until fresh recruitment takes place in December 2025. The Court also directed the State Government to file an affidavit before May 30 enclosing the advertisement and a schedule of the entire recruitment process.
The first two weeks of May witnessed widespread protests by those who had lost jobs, mostly outside Bikash Bhawan. By way of a shorthand, they called themselves the 'untainted'. On May 15, hundreds of protesters gathered outside Bikash Bhawan, saying they would not allow government employees to leave the office unless the State government found a way out.
Tensions ran high as dusk descended, and the employees working in several departments grew desperate to leave. A large contingent of police arrived to clear the protesters from around the gates of the government institution. The police resorted to baton charge, leaving scores of protesters injured. This was covered extensively on live television news.
The next day, the West Bengal police justified its actions saying they were getting distress calls from employees who wanted to return home. 'We used minimal force. We understand they have lost their jobs, but they broke barricades, used force to get inside Bikash Bhawan, and did not allow over 500 employees to leave the premises,' said Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General, South Bengal, addressing the media.
Chinmoy Mondal, a representative of Deserving Teachers Rights Forum, a group formed for the protest, says everyone knows why 'deserving teachers' are on the streets and outside Bikash Bhawan. 'They call this minimal force? It left us with fractures, head and eye injuries, and blood loss,' Mondal said.
On May 27, the CM said that her government would start a fresh recruitment process for teachers as per the Supreme Court order. Simultaneously, the government would pursue a review petition in the SC seeking the reinstatement of all the teachers and non-teaching staff who lost their jobs.
'The process of the review petition and fresh appointments will continue simultaneously,' she said at the State Secretariat, bringing the options from 'A, B, C, D and E' down to two. On May 31, West Bengal brought out a notification for appointment for 44,203 vacancies as teachers. The government allowed age relaxations so that the teachers whose jobs have been annulled can get a shot at recruitment.
Physical hurt and mental trauma
By the first week of June, the protesters were asked to shift to a different venue. The most accessible spot for all was the metro station closest to Bikash Bhawan. On a sweltering June afternoon, hundreds of young women and men poured out of the Karunamoyee metro station, greeting each other like old friends.
'How are you? How's your eye? You look tired,' a protester asks 33-year-old Rajat Haldar, a physics teacher in Subhash Nagar High School in South 24 Parganas. Since May 15, Haldar has had a deep scar over his left eyebrow. He claims it is from when he was beaten by the police. 'It is difficult for me to stay in the sun for too long now. My head starts throbbing,' he tells a well-wishing fellow protester.
He says the memories of the violent clash of May 15 are traumatic to recall. 'All I remember was that around 9.30 that night, after verbal altercations started between protestors and police outside Bikash Bhawan, a few of my fellow teachers and I were peacefully seated along one of the boundary walls. Two police personnel came and demanded to know what we were doing. Moments later, without any warning, two constables charged at us with batons and struck my head,' he says.
Suvojit Das, in his mid 30s, one of the leading voices of the Jogyo Shikkhok Shikkhika Adhikar Mancha (JSSAM), an organisation of 'aggrieved teachers', frequently visits the protest site at Karunamoyee.
'We are dying a slow death every day. It is one thing to be executed at a moment's notice, and it is another thing to be told when you will be executed and to have to wait in misery till that day arrives,' says Das, as fellow teachers gather around him. 'For us, December 31, our last working day stipulated by the Supreme Court, is like that. We wake up worrying about December 31,' says the mathematics teacher.
Protesting teachers say that Praveen Karmakar, a teacher from Amui Para Refugee School in Hooghly, died during the course of the protests. He had an underlying illness that was triggered by 'severe mental stress', they say.
In a hunger protest that about 20 teachers participated in, two of who are visually impaired, several have been hospitalised.
Sidelined non-teaching staff
Among the employees of State-run schools who have lost their jobs, 2,483 were Group C staff and 4,550 Group D staff serving in non-teaching capacities. They had to leave from the day following the SC order. So far there has been no recruitment notification for Group C and D employees.
Amit Mondal, one of the leaders of the Group C and D staff member group, points out that clerical staff is the backbone of schools. Non-teaching staff maintains classrooms, performs various administrative jobs, and ensures the running of schemes like Kanyashree Prakalpa, which incentivises girls to stay in school until Class 12.
'I bring my son, who is just one-and-a-half years old here every day. I have no choice. If I don't earn, he won't get his meals. Thankfully, my husband has been a pillar of support in the struggle,' says Mala Hansda, a Group D school employee from Purulia. She tries to soothe her child, who is crying under the scorching sun.
The CM on April 26 announced ₹25,000 and ₹20,000 honorariums to Group C and D staff until the Supreme Court announces a decision on the State's review petition. But the allowance, which was approved by the State Cabinet, was challenged before the Calcutta High Court by some job aspirants who claim they were not appointed because of 'irregularities'. Now, the monthly allowance stays until September 26, as per a court order.
The recruitment 'scam'
Firdous Shamim, an advocate in the Calcutta High Court, has represented various candidates who alleged irregularities in the recruitment process. 'This scam is an example of institutionalised corruption. There was manipulation of marks and rank jumping; candidates who did not appear in the examination were given appointments,' the lawyer says.
Central investigation agencies found evidence of tampering of the optical mark reader (OMR) sheets, where they found that marks of many candidates had been forged. The WBSSC claims that OMR sheets of the 2016 examination have been destroyed and cannot be retrieved.
Shadab Shams and Aftab Ansari are married. Both have lost their jobs after the Supreme Court order. Shadab teaches Urdu in a school in Kankinara, and Aftab is a geography teacher in a Hindi-medium school in Titagarh. The couple occasionally brings their daughter to protests as there is no one to take care of her at home.
'What has happened to us is a grave injustice. The government is responsible for the corruption, and now we are on the brink of a crisis. What did we do to deserve this?' Shams says.
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Edited by Sunalini Mathew