At a physical meeting held on Monday evening involving the presence of 80-100 employees, the Visva-Bharati administration decided the staff would work from home (WFH) for the time being.
The work from home directive has nothing to do with COVID-19, but because the authorities felt the situation on the campus was still volatile following last week’s violence when a mob of locals disrupted the construction of a wall around the popular Bhuban Danga ground. The university had shut down following the incident.
“It was unanimously resolved to continue those activities which are for student-benefits and those essential services which are absolutely essential for the university to remain functional. We will continue to work from home in regard to these activities since the campus is highly volatile and tense,” said a press release issued after the meeting.
“We will attend to all emergency services relating to students’ interests, including admission, examination (if it is decided), online teaching (where it has already been started), and other emergency services,” it said.
“Our colleagues are regularly threatened with dire consequences and are subjected to verbal abuse, especially our female colleagues. Under these circumstances, it will not be judicious to ask them to attend to their regular routine works in the office; they will work from home,” the release further said, adding that the situation would be reviewed on August 31.
Home — as Visva-Bharati employees know by now, some of them the hard way — is their place of residence in Santinketan and not their hometown. Many teachers live in other towns and cities of West Bengal where they return to during holidays and weekends. During the lockdown, when people were expected to work from home, several of them had returned to their hometowns, only to find themselves served with show-cause notices for leaving station without permission, and their salaries withheld.
Difficult days appear to be ahead for Visva-Bharati as the issue of raising walls around the university property remains far from resolved. While no one is against the institution securing its property, what people, especially ashramites (elderly residents who have had a long association with Visva-Bharati and who live around the campus), are opposing is the raising of high walls that cut them off from their alma mater. According to them, low walls mounted with a barbed fence should suffice.
But the university, going by Monday’s press release, has brushed aside their concerns. “If the ashramites and those who get emotionally swayed by the ideas of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore take care of the security issues, we will be much obliged,” it said sarcastically.