4 minutes agoAuthor: Rajesh Sahu
Teachers teaching Mathematics-Science and English in modern madrassas have not received salary for the last 72 months. He is getting 3 thousand rupees every month. While 15 thousand rupees should be received. For his salary, he has met the ministers of the central and state government several times. Got assurance every time but could not get the right till now.
The teachers reached the Eco Garden in Lucknow to protest with their demands. Dainik Bhaskar’s team reached among them. Talked to him. Know their demands. Listened to the assurances being received from the government. Also tried to understand where the screw is stuck. Let us explain everything step by step.
This photo was taken while performing at Eco Garden. Around 400 people had gathered.
165 crore needed but only 10 crore in the budget
Madrasa teacher Abhishek Pandey, who came from Amethi to join the movement, said, “We have met our MP Smriti Irani 7 times regarding our demand. See something.” After saying this, Abhishek says that where should we go? There are 21,546 teachers like us in the state. For whose salary a budget of Rs 165 crore is needed every year, but the central government has given only 10 crore this time.
Our demand has become a football
Meraj Ansari, advisor of Madrasa Union’s unity team, says, “Our demand has been made like a football. The central government says that demand has not come from UP and the state government says that demand has not come from there. We get only 3 thousand rupees at this time. Our arrears to the government have crossed Rs 9 lakh.
Meraj Ansari says that our demands are being thrown from here to there by making them footballs.
have three daughters how to run the family
Mehnoor Fatima of Sitapur has come to join the movement. She says, since 2016, we get only Rs 3,000 a month as salary. We have three daughters, if we study ourselves, now we will definitely teach them, but how will we teach with so little money? Mehnoor also tells that our name is in the list of 1539 madrassas on which the government has stopped giving money. But we children are being taught. There is continuous checking. On top of that, when you file for salary, then bribe has to be given separately.
people taunt what kind of teacher you are
Sulochana Devi has come from Gonda district to join the movement. She says if all this was to be done with us then we would not have implemented this scheme. We do not put people on duty in the madrasa. If you want to stop the scheme, then stop the scheme by giving our 78 months salary. About 9 lakh rupees have been arrears. Now people taunt that what kind of teacher you are, what is the point of being a teacher. You don’t get money, you don’t get respect.
Sulochana says that people are now taunting that what kind of teacher should she be who does not get money.
Sulochana further says that we were also given training for DLED, but now she was also told that it is not valid. What kind of rule is this?
You even heard the words of the agitating teachers. Let us now understand this whole matter.
21,546 teachers are waiting for their salary
There are a total of 19,213 madrassas in UP. In this, 14,677 are of tahtania i.e. primary level and faukania i.e. junior high school level. There are 4,536 madrassas under Alia where Urdu, Arabic and Persian are taught. Out of 19 thousand madrassas, 7,356 madrassas are directly funded by the government. Here 21,546 teachers teach Hindi, Mathematics, English, Science and Computer to the children.
All these teachers were recruited under the scheme started in 1993. In 2008, the name of the scheme was changed to Scheme for Providing Quality Education in Madarsa. The objective of the scheme was to provide not only religious but also modern education to the children studying in Madrasas. This scheme was completely of the Central Government, so its money was also released by the Union Ministry of Human Resources.
The salary was less, so the state also started giving
The central government has decided to pay Rs 6,000 per month to graduate teachers and Rs 12,000 to post graduate teachers. In the beginning this plan went well. Every year the budget is issued. Teachers would get salary every month. From 2013, the central government started delaying the payment. While the arrears in 2013-14 were 59 lakhs, in 2014-15 it reached 8.01 crores.
The teachers have put up posters related to their demands at the protest site.
In 2016, at that time the SP government of UP decided to give 2000 rupees every month to graduate teachers and 3000 rupees to post graduate teachers. The BJP government formed in 2017 also maintained it but the Center kept lagging behind in giving the budget. In 2017-18, the outstanding amount reached 266.69 crores.
In 2018, the central government reduced the budget of its share
In 2018, the central government also included the state in this scheme. The Ministry of Human Welfare Development divided the expenditure in 60:40. That is, 60% will be given by the central government and 40% by the state government. At the time when this decision was being taken, the salaries of the madrassa teachers had not come for 30 months. On 6 September 2018, he was protesting at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.
The officials of the Madrasa Teachers Association had met the then MHRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, then he had said that the budget would be released in the next two months i.e. by November 2018. However, this did not happen. National President of Teacher’s Union Ejaz Ahmed tells another thing, he says, in 2014, PM Modi issued a budget of Rs 375 crore to improve the condition of madrasas but Prakash Javadekar reduced it to 120 crore.
40% was to be given to the state but it is also not giving
In 2018, it was decided that the state government has to pay 40% but it kept waiting for 60% from the central government. During this, the madrasa teachers were getting only Rs 2000 and Rs 3000 from the state. Brijesh Kumar Shukla of Amethi says that the state government gives its share of this amount on time. Sometimes even advance, but what happens with this much money in today’s inflation.
When the MHRD Ministry handed over the scheme to the minority department, the arrears got stuck.
In 2021, taking a big decision, the Central Government transferred the SPQEM scheme from the MHRD Ministry to the Ministry of Minority Affairs. At the time when this decision was taken, the arrears of teachers reached 777.51 crore. The change of department raised hopes among the teachers that now the teachers will get the outstanding money.
The Madrasa Teachers Association continued to protest for non-payment of salary. Sometimes madrasa teachers from all over the country gathered at Delhi’s Jatan Mantar and sometimes sat on dharna at Lucknow’s Eco Garden and GPO Park. The meeting of the Project Approval Board of the Central Government was held. In the meeting, the UP government prepared a budget of Rs 275.55 crore to pay salaries to 17,306 post graduate and 3,659 graduate teachers. But out of this only Rs 200 crore was passed.
In January 2022, madrassa teachers had reached Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to protest.
State General Secretary Sunil Kumar Singh says, Madrasa Modernization Scheme was also included in BJP’s manifesto. Madrasa teachers appealed for publicity in the society and people’s support to form the government under the leadership of Modi ji. The work of propaganda to make Yogi CM again in the state was done, yet madrasa modernization teachers are becoming victims of starvation.
At present, the arrears of teachers have crossed Rs 1500 crore. The arrears of each teacher has reached Rs 8 lakh to Rs 9 lakh. Madrasa teachers are hopeful that they will get justice and also their due salary.