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Bihar Teachers’ Association releases list of 42 striking teachers who died unpaid
The cases of Chandrakala Mishra and Mala Devi are among the 42 other teacher families, who have met untimely deaths and died without being paid.
Chandrakala Mishra, 40, is now a single parent who is responsible for her three children after the death of her husband Arvind Kumar, who was a contractual teacher at Girls’ Upgraded Middle School in Vaishali. The eldest among them, a son, took the matriculation exam this year. Kumar passed away on March 20.
“My husband died unpaid and now, we have to fend for ourselves. We have been facing several difficulties since last month after the government suspended him, as he had joined the indefinite strike for justice. He suffered brain haemorrhage a couple of days after the suspension and could not recover,” said Chandrakala.
Mala Devi, mother of a teenage daughter, is also suffering from the same agony after her husband, Ram Sanyog Sada, died untimely on April 1 in Sitamarhi. “My husband was the lone bread earner in the family. As he was on strike with his colleagues, he didn’t receive the salary of previous months. I am clueless as how to sustain the family,” she said.
The cases of Chandrakala Mishra and Mala Devi are among the 42 other teacher families, who have met untimely deaths and died without being paid.
“The state government has turned apathetic towards the families. It is not only about the payment of salary, the bereaved families are not being paid even the ex-gratia compensation of ₹4 lakh as per their service condition,” alleged the Bihar Secondary School Teachers’ Association (BSSTA).
The BSSTA released the list of all 42 teachers along with their addresses and personal details, who lost their lives during the strike period. Majority of them suffered brain haemorrhage, heart attack due to the action taken against them, while several others died due to lack of proper treatment owing to poor financial condition and non-availability of general medical facility that had turned scarce due to outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic.
General secretary of BSSTA Shatrughan Prasad Singh said, “The strike stretched for too long as the government did not want to interfere. How many more lives it wants to take.”
The BSSTA also condemned the government decision to withhold salary of striking teachers for the period they worked and claimed that the education department was disobeying its own order passed in 2015, in which it was stipulated that the salary of teachers would not be stopped without any solid reason.
“When the entire world is in distress due to Coronavirus pandemic, the rigidness of government towards the teachers is insensitive. The teachers have always come forward to extend support to the chief minister (CM). They have accepted duty at schools which are converted into quarantine centres along with contribution of a day’s salary which sums around ₹3 crore to the CM relief fund. It’s high time that the government steps forward and take steps to help the contractual teachers,” said Singh.
Ashwini Pandey, spokesperson of TET-STET Qualified Teachers’ Association, said, “The state government is concerned for Coronavirus death but they show no empathy towards the teachers who died untimely. I appeal to the government to take positive steps for negotiation and restore peace among teachers who are struggling from past two months.”
