Being one of the primary social institutions in an individual's life, the teacher plays an instrumental role – after the parents – in shaping students. Despite this unwritten norm, teachers who have put in up to 30 years of service in civic schools are running pillar to post to get their pension.
It has become a regular feature in the civic education department for clerical staff to give meaningless excuses ranging from papers and attendance records being missing, to files being untraceable. All too often, they demand fresh papers – something that is irrelevant and uncalled for.
Teachers who meet senior officials for redressal are given similar responses – along the lines of how nothing can be done till files are received. Such harrowing times are not restricted to the civic section of the teaching fraternity, for teachers from private-aided schools have had similar experiences.
BJP corporator, advocate Gyanmurti Sharma and Sena corporator Pramod Shinde have written to the municipal commissioner to take immediate remedial steps to avoid further insult of retired teachers. Sharma says, "Many teachers have approached us with their grievances. If undue harassment of retired teachers is not stopped by civic staff, we will take a delegation of corporators to the civic commissioner."
Requesting anonymity, a retired teacher explained how corruption was the reason for this kind of behaviour, saying, "When a teacher is tired of taking repeated rounds of the civic office, they then succumb to the pressure and end up paying bribe to clear their pension dues. When bribe are paid, files are cleared on priority basis."
Fighting back tears, another teacher said, "It seems that either we have failed miserably in teaching, or they may have inherited this dirty culture from their parents. That can be the reason these staff have no respect for senior citizens. But for no fault of our own, we are dancing to their tunes in order to fulfill their greed."
A very senior civic officer, on the condition of anonymity, said, "We are aware of this situation, but are unable to track them unless we receive formal complaints. Even if we receive anonymous complaints, we can start an investigation to catch the culprits."
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