Bengal Para-teachers Continue Hunger Strike, Boycott Schools

Niva Mondal was taken to the hospital when she fell sick after 48 hours hunger strike, but she refused treatment and went back to the protest site, where 37 para-teachers from across West Bengal are ready to fast to death unless the government agrees to meet their demands. Thousands of para-teachers launched an indefinite protest on November 11 in Salt Lake, Kolkata, just outside Bikash Bhavan, the office of state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee. When the government refused to respond to the protesting para-teachers even after five days of protest, they decided to launch an indefinite hunger strike on the evening of Friday, November 15.

Para Teachers Aikya Manch, the organisation leading the movement has also called for an explicit boycott of the schools from November 18. Talking to NewsClick, Madhumita Banerjee, a leader of the movement said, “48,000 para-teachers from all across the state are boycotting the schools from today. We refuse to work when our lives and livelihoods are at stake. We will see how the education system works without us.”

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, and none of the benefits that are provided to regular teachers. If the pay band is introduced for para-teachers, they 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.

The teachers sitting on hunger strike have announced that they will donate their bodies after they fast to death. Banerjee said, “We have been spending our days and nights on the streets for eight days now. Our bodies are weak. Seven para-teachers have been hospitalised until now, and more are falling sick. But we have decided that even dying is better than spending our lives like this, as we are barely able to survive and support our families on our meagre salaries.”

Instead of giving assurance to the protesting teachers or even visiting the protest site to talk to them, the education minister, while addressing the media, reportedly said, “They are making a mistake. This is not good for their health. They are aware that the government is sympathetic towards the teachers. They are disrupting the education of the students by protesting again and again,” according to a Bengali news portal.

This remark made by the minister has angered the protesting teachers even more. Banerjee said, “Even the high court has said that we have the right to protest here, and still the government is refusing to acknowledge our struggle. They do not value our lives.” She added that the para-teachers had no intention of causing any inconvenience to the students, but they did not have any option left. She said, “This is a question of our lives. How will we shape the futures of our students if we are barely alive ourselves?”

Also read: Primary School Teachers Protest in Kolkata, Demand Hike in Salary