In response to a call for a State-wide agitation seeking job security and release of pending salaries, scores of guest lecturers staged a demonstration in Dharwad on Wednesday.
Staging the protest under the aegis of the Karnataka State Guest Lecturers Agitation Committee in front of the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad, the guest lecturers expressed their displeasure over not being paid for their work, and also, lack of job security.
As many as 14,564 guest lecturers are serving in 413 government first grade colleges across the State and some of them have been serving for over two decades on a temporary basis.
The protesting guest lecturers said that although as per an UGC circular in 2019, guest lecturers in government degree colleges were to be paid ₹ 1,500 per hour or ₹ 50,000 per month, they were being paid very less.
“At present, guest lecturers with NET, SLET or with doctoral degrees serving in degree colleges are being paid ₹ 13,000 a month, while the others are being paid ₹ 11,000. And, for the last four or five months, they have not been paid, although COVID-19-induced lockdown and subsequent developments have increased their hardships,” Bhavani Shankar of the agitation committee, said.
Mr. Bhavani Shankar said that there have been reports of 15 guest lecturers having taken the extreme step during the pandemic due to financial problems. There are guest lecturers who are suffering from serious health issues. Also, some have been forced to sell vegetables and other articles on the roadside for their livelihood, he said.
Convenors Hanumesh Huded and Kotresh Hubballi condemned the government’s apathy in strong terms. They said that the government, which issued directions stating that salaries to employees cannot be stopped, has not followed its own direction so far. Even as the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development issued a direction on considering the period between March 24 and July 31 as service period and payment of salaries for the same duration, the State government has not yet paid the salaries of the guest lecturers, they said.
Guest lecturers Mahanthesh Chikkanaragund, C.S. Patil, Vinod Pujar, Manjunath Dandin, Sataraddi, Vijay Kumar Pawar, Gayatri Kulkarni, Geeta Agadi, Sarojini Dandalkar, Daneshwari Guddad and others coordinated the protest. They urged the State government to immediately take remedial measures.
They said that although there had been a talk of releasing ₹ 53 crore towards wages, it had not reached the guest lecturers yet. Meanwhile, there were reports about the government not continuing the services of the guest lecturers under austerity measures, making the teachers further anxious, they said.
The protesting teachers also said that job security was their main and long-pending demand, which the State government had to look into. They urged the State government to take a suitable decision on this after discussion during the legislature session. They later submitted a memorandum to the district administration.