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Sitapur teachers told to submit photo with toilet in background
In a bizarre diktat, teachers of the basic education department in Sitapur have been asked to get their photographs clicked while standing next to their toilets.
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In a bizarre diktat, teachers of the basic education department in Sitapur have been asked to get their photographs clicked while standing next to their toilets.
The order comes with a deadline, May 27, failing which the May salary of the defaulters will not be cleared. The photographs are to be submitted at the office of the Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Sitapur.
Issued by Ajay Kumar, Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Sitapur, the letter says instructions have been issued following the telephonic orders of the district magistrate. HT has a copy of the order. There are around 13,600 basic teachers in Sitapur and about half of them are women.
The move, the letter says, has been made to make sure that the staff are regularly using toilets at their residence and not going out in the open.
The order has led to resentment among teachers of not only Sitapur district but several unions representing them.
“How can you expect a female teacher to stand beside a toilet and get her photograph clicked?,” questioned a visibly perturbed female teacher, who did not wish to be quoted. “The order is simply absurd. Just see the reason for issuing such an order. The department wants to make sure that the teachers are regularly using toilets. For this, we have to get our photographs clicked while standing next to a toilet in our homes,” added the teacher.
The basic teachers union in Sitapur too is against the order.
“The order is derogatory in itself. Teachers are considered to be nation builders. How can you except a teacher, that too a female teacher, to get her photograph clicked this way just to prove that he or she is using the toilet and not attending nature’s call in the open,” said Vinod Kumar Varma, a primary teacher, Sitapur.
“We have decided not to follow this order. If our salary is stopped or any action taken, teachers in Sitapur will go on strike,” added Varma.
Dinesh Chandra Sharma, state president, Basic Teachers Union, termed the order as a ‘Tughlaqui farman’.
All effort to contact Anupama Jaiswal, UP’s basic education minister, failed as the minister’s cellphone was switched off.
