Lucknow— The Sanyukt Shiksha Mitra Mahasammelan, a gathering of around 50,000 Shikshamitras from all over Uttar Pradesh, was convened by the Uttar Pradesh Prathimik Shikshamitra Sangha Uttar Pradesh, as a means to garner the support of the outraged auxiliary teachers who have been protesting for the restoration of their status as regular teachers. Kaushal Kishore, MP and Union State Minister of Housing and Urban welfare, addressed the assembly and assured the teachers that their regularization would be forthcoming, albeit with a different nomenclature than that of “Assistant Teacher”.
He further requested that the Shikshamitras pledge their support to the Yogi-Modi government, and that he would raise their concerns with the Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sandeep Singh, the Primary Education minister of the State, was conspicuously absent from the event.
While some of the Shikshamitras were hopeful, others remained skeptical of the assurances given by the Union Minister. Sanjay Kumar Singh, an MA, B.ED, TET qualified and BTC trained teacher, expressed optimism that he would be regularized despite a previous technical fault that had resulted in his appointment being quashed by the Supreme Court.
Similarly, Anil Kumar, a teacher from Sonbhadra who has been teaching since 2004, is hopeful that there will be a solution to their grievances, since previous efforts by various organizations to go against the government had failed. However, Poonam, an auxiliary teacher from Basti district, stated that while she had been working since 2006 as a teacher and had been regularized in 2014, she still harbors a faint hope and is continuing to press her demands through dharnas and protests.
Rekha Shukla, another shikshamitra from Lucknow, is a mother of two, whose husband died of Covid-19 in 2020. She says “ Had it been increased from 3,000 to 10,000 Rs we would have understood but downward revision from 40,000 to 10,000 is not justified. If they were giving us payment, we were also working hard, we were going to the school on time ; today we work equally to that of the Assistant Teacher, but they are getting 60-70000 and we are getting just a meagre 10,000 per month".
Shiv Kumar Shukla, state president of the Uttar Pradesh Prathimik Shikshamitra Sangha, is hopeful that the assurance given by the Union Minister, as well as the efforts of State Minister Sanjay Nishad and other leaders, will lead to the resolution of the Shikshamitras' grievances. However, he is also prepared for the possibility of a protracted struggle if their demands are not met.
The Shiksha Mitras, who were initially appointed during the Kalyan Singh-led BJP government in 1999 to help villagers enroll their children in schools and raise awareness about the need for education, were granted the status of Assistant Teacher by Akhilesh Yadav in 2014, resulting in a substantial increase in their pay.
However, in 2015, the Allahabad High Court quashed their appointment, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision in 2017. The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government subsequently increased the monthly remuneration from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000, which was still a significant decrease from the Rs 40,000 salary that they had been receiving as assistant teachers for the three-year period from 2014-2017.
The Shikshamitras remain hopeful that they will be paid at par with regularized teachers in light of the rapidly increasing inflation, and it remains to be seen whether the government will follow through on its assurances.
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