Payel Dutta (35 years) and Smritikana Roy (33 years) sit on the sidewalk in front of Bikash Bhawan in the Salt Lake in Kolkata after the afternoon afternoon. They write to President India with murm and ask for the restoration of their job as teachers. Either this or looking for permission for “voluntary euthanasia”. Bikash Bhawan is the headquarters of the State Education Department of West Bengal and Dutt and Roy teaches mathematics and English.
Two months ago, the Supreme Court canceled 25,752 teachers and non -conducted employees in state schools. The appointment was carried out in 2016 by the West Bengal School Service Commission (WBSSC), a body organizing an entry examination for school jobs. Since then, Bikash Bhawan has become a place of protests of those whose appointment is canceled. Women and men, many at the age of 30 and 40, gathered outside the blue and white government building.
She wiped tears, Dutta, who teaches in Murshidabad Indrani Hasna Mayani High School, says: “When I passed an exam in 2016, I was single and I didn’t have a child; now I had free time.
Roy, who teaches Mahakali Pathshala in the Bahampura, says she has always grown up, that she has always looked at teaching as a noble profession, but now fighting. “We were beaten, we were pulling on the roads and we even shed blood on the streets. We lost all the self -esteem. Our students see us sitting on the roads and getting a baton charged with the police. Roy says. She is also a mother and can not imagine that he is going through the recruitment process again. Most of those adopted in 2016 worked about five years before their release at the beginning of this year.
A number of events
In July 2022, the scam of the recruitment of the West Bengal School came to light, when the former State Minister of Education Partha Chatterjee and his helper Arpit Mukherjee arrested Directorate for recovery. The central investigation agency renewed cash, jewelry and impossible real estate worth 103.10 GBP, which teamed up with the Minister and its helper.
So far, the investigation has resulted in a score of arrest, which includes officials of the State Educational Department, policy associated with the ruling Congress Trinamool and Touts. Touts allegedly offered jobs in state schools in return for money that was then paid “up”. SC stated that “selectioners with supposed evidence and material indicating the unlawful conduct” immediately gave up their work.
The first incident of the violence occurred on April 9, when the protesters attacked the office of the District Inspector (DI) Schools in Kasbo in South Calcutta and broke out in the videos that spread after, the police officer was seen to dig a protesting teacher, provoking outrage.
On April 17, the Supreme Court allowed teachers to “who claim to have been validly selected and did not commit any unlawful conduct” to continue the state government and help schools. They were to be left until new recruitment took place in December 2025. The court also ordered the State Government to file an honorary statement that surrounds the advertising and schedule of the entire recruitment process before 30 May.
Groups of released teachers perform a protest against recruitment “fraud”. | Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri
The first two weeks of May witnessed the extended protests of those who lost their jobs, mostly outside Bikash Bhawan. They were called “infinite” through the abbreviation. On May 15, hundreds of protesters gathered before Bikash Bhawan and said they would not allow government employees to leave the office unless the government did not find their way out.
The tension ran high as dusk descended, and employees working in several departments desperately left. A large police contingent arrived to clean the protesters from the gates of the government institution. The police resorted to the accusation of the baton and left a score of protesters of the injured. This was extensively covered in live television news.
The following day, the West Bengal Police justified their actions and said they were receiving emergency calls from employees who wanted to return home. “We used minimal power. We understand they lost their jobs, but broke the barricades, used the power to get inside Bikash Bhawan and not allow more than 500 employees to leave the premises,” said Supratim Sarkar, another CEO of South Bengal, addressed the media.
Chinmoy Mondal, a representative of the forum of deserved teachers of teachers, a group created in protest, says everyone knows why “deserves teachers” are on the streets and outside Bikash Bhawan. “They call this minimal power? They left us with fractures, head and eye injuries and blood loss,” Mondal said.
27. CM CM said its government will launch a new recruitment process for the Supreme Court’s order. At the same time, the government would make a proposal for a review in SC, which would be looking for restoration of all teachers and non -general employees who lost their jobs.
“The process of review and new meetings will continue at the same time,” she said at the State Secretariat and reduced the possibilities from “A, B, C, D and E” to two. May 31 West Bengal brought a notice of appointment at 44 203 vacancies as teachers. The government allowed age relaxation so that teachers whose employment was canceled could get a recruitment shot.
Physical injury and mental trauma
The first week of June were asked to move to another place. The most affordable place for all was the metro station closest to Bikash Bhawan. In June in the afternoon, hundreds of young women and men poured out of the Karunamoye metro station and greetings as old friends.
“How are you? How is your eye? You look tired,” asks the protesters of 33 -year -old Rajat Haldar, a physics teacher at High School Subhash Nagar in the south 24 Parganas. Since May 15, Haldar had a deep scar above his left eyebrows. He claims it is when he was defeated by the police. “It is hard for me to stay in the sun for too long. My head will begin to pulsate,” he says to a well -cut protesting.
The teacher breaks down at the point of the protest. | Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri
He says the memories of the violent clash of 15. May are traumatic. “Everything I remember was that around 9:30 that night, after the verbal quarrels between the protesters and the police outside Bikash Bhawan began, several of my teachers and I sat peacefully along one of the border walls.
SUVING DAS, in its mid -thirties, one of the leading votes of Yogyo Shikkhok Shikkhika Adhikar Mancha (JSSAM), the organism of “agigated teachers”, often visits the protest point Karunamoy.
“We are dying slow death every day. It’s one thing that needs to be done immediately, and it’s another thing to say when you are executed, and you have to wait in misery until that day,” Das says. “For us, December 31, our last working day is the Supreme Court.
Protesting teachers claim that Karmakar, a teacher from Amui Para, a refugee school in Hooghla, died in protests. He had a underlying illness that was caused by “severe mental stress”, they say.
In the protest with hunger, which was attended by about 20 teachers, two of whom are visually impaired, several of which were hospitalized.
Displacement
Among the employees of state schools who lost their jobs were 2,483 Group C staff and 4,550 Group D employees who served in non -active capacities. They had to leave the day after ordering SC. So far, there has been no recruitment notice for Group C and D employees.
Amit Mondal, one of the leaders of Group C and D employees, points out that administrative staff is the backbone of schools. Uninitnsive staff maintains classrooms, performs various administrative jobs, and ensures the operation of schemes such as Kanyashree Prakalpa, which motivates girls to stay at school until class 12.
Protesting teachers write to the President of India and ask her to either restore their work or allow them to voluntary euthanasia. | Photo Credit: Debasish Bhaduri
“I bring my son, who is only one and a half years old every day. I don’t have a choice. If I don’t, she won’t get food. Fortunately, my husband was a pillar of support in the fight,” says Mala Hansda, Group D.
Cm 26 April announced 25,000 GBP and 20,000 GBP for Group C and D employees until the Supreme Court reports a decision on the state review. However, some job seekers who claim that they were not appointed for “inconsistencies” were attacked by the contribution that was approved by the state cabinet in court in Calcutta. Now the monthly contribution remains within 26 September according to the court order.
Recruitment
Firdous Shamim, a lawyer at the High Court in Kalcato, represented various candidates who allegedly irregularity in the recruitment process. “This fraud is an example of institutionalized corruption. Manipulation with brands and jumping to evaluation; candidates who did not appear in the exam got a meeting,” says the lawyer.
Central investigative agencies found evidence of manipulating the leafs of optical brand readers (OMR), where they found that many candidates were created. WBSSC claims that the 2016 OMR tests have been destroyed and cannot be obtained.
Shadab Shams and Aftab Ansari are married. They both lost their jobs after the Supreme Court’s order. Shadab teaches Urda at Kankinara and Aftab is a geography teacher in Hindi High School in Titagarh. Sometimes the couple brings their daughter to protests because no one cares about it.
“What happened to us is serious injustice. The government is responsible for corruption, and now we are on the brink of the crisis. What did we do to deserve it?” Shams says.
SHRABANA.Chatterje@thehind.co.in
Moyurie.som@thehind.co.in
Edit Sunalini Mathew
