Rajasthan: Madrassa para-teachers struggling to run households on the meagre honorarium set by state

Madrassa para-teachers registered with the board helpless as they struggle with the increasing financial crunch.

Sawai Madhopur— In Rajasthan, more than 6,000 para-teachers imparting education to the childrenin madrassas registered with the madrassa board are putting in as much effort as teachers working in government schools. When the work is the same, then why is the government differentiating between the honorarium paid to them? This is a significant question. With the low honorarium that is being paid to madrassa para-teachers, it is becoming difficult for them to support their family — madrassa para-teachers are paid Rs 11,547 per month as salary. Still, no Muslim MLA here is ready to take up the matter.

Difficult to run the household

Riyazuddin, a resident of Gangapur City, is a para-teacher in a madrassa in Bharatpur district. His wife and children live in the village along with his sick mother. With the honorarium he receives, he is not even able to buy medications for his mother. And his debts keep mounting.

Jamshed Khan, a para-teacher working in the Abdul Kalam Azad Madrassa in Bharatpur, has not received his honorarium since 2013. Raees, a resident of Sawai Madhopur city, works as a para-teacher in Jaipur, at a distance of 150km from his home. He suffers from cancer. He could not even pay for his treatment from the honorarium received for his teaching work.

Asma, a madrassa para teacher in Gangapur, Bhilwara district, said, "I have been teaching in the madrassa for 16 years on a meagre honorarium. But now, it is not enough to be able to save even some money to buy books for my children. If the government fulfills its promise, then happiness will pervade our homes too."A para-teacher in a madrassa in Tonk district, Parveen, is also unable to run her household on such a low honorarium.

State government's betrayal

One pledge made by the Congress, when it sought to win the election after which it came into power, was to regularize the Rajasthan madrassa para-teachers. The government though went back on this election pledge and the para teachers protested. After a long struggle, the government in a politically strategic move to suppress the movement promised creating a separate contract cadre.

Zulfiqar Ahmed, who played an important part in the madrassa para teachers' struggle, said more than half a dozen Muslim MLAs of the state at that time assured them that the government was working in their interest. Please be patient. And the madrassa para teachers became victim to the trust placed in these MLAs, who were siding with the government. To date, neither has the contract cadre been instituted nor has the honorarium increased as per the movement's demand. The Mooknayak contacted several Muslim MLAs in the Assembly Constituency, from Danish Abrar, the MLA from Sawai Madhopur, to others, but no-one gave a satisfactory answer to us.

Let down even by their public representatives

Dilshad Khan, the Sawai Madhopur district president of the Madrassa Para Teacher Association said that more than 300 para-teachers in the state have left home to work in other districts for a meagre honorarium. One can surmise the state of their families. The government is not ready to send these para-teachers back to their domiciliary district. Nor is any Muslim MLA taking up the struggles of the madrassa para-teachers with the government.

यहाँ हिन्दी में भी पढ़ें: राजस्थानः अल्प मानदेय में मदरसों के पैरा टीचर्स कर रहे काम, कैसे हो परिवार का पालन-पोषण!

[Story Translated By Lotika Singha]