Bihar: Four lakh contractual teachers threaten to go on indefinite strike

Around four lakh teachers, working in government schools on a contractual basis, have threatened to proceed on an indefinite strike, if the Bihar government does not implement 'equal pay for equal work' for them.

The decision comes in the wake of the Bihar government mulling to move the Supreme Court over Patna High Court’s decision that contractual or 'Niyojit' teachers were entitled to equal pay as their regular counterparts.

On October 31, a division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay had directed the state government to fix pay scales of contractual teachers on a par with regular teachers of nationalised schools, within three months.

However, with the state government yet undecided, more than 20 associations of contractual teachers of primary, secondary and senior secondary levels, have come together and said, “If the Bihar government does not implement equal pay for equal work by January 31, 2018, they will lock the schools across the state and proceed on strikes from February 1, 2018.”

It may be mentioned that the Class X and XII exams of Bihar School Examination Board is held in February and March, and the contractual teachers comprise a major chunk of its invigilators. The education department will face much inconvenience in the event of the teachers proceeding on strike. However, implementation of the 'equal' pay scale, will put an additional burden of Rs 2,900 crore on the state exchequer.  

The contractual teachers were appointed by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, after he came to power in 2005, to fill up existing vacancies and streamline the education sector in Bihar. Initially, they were offered a consolidated pay, however, few years into service and they started staging agitations demanding equal pay for equal work. While they were given a 'pay scale' in 2015, it was still less than the regular teachers.