The Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) went on an indefinite strike starting yesterday (December 4, 2019) in protest against the Delhi University Circular published on August 28, 2019 which instructed that various departments across colleges should appoint guest faculty against full-time vacancies. If a full time appointment is handed out against a full time vacancy, the appointees get proper monthly salary while guest lecturers are paid per class.
Ad-hoc appointments all over Delhi University are being converted to Guest appointments, even for those who have been associated with their colleges for various years. The demands of teachers all over the city to regularise appointments have fallen on deaf years or so it seems. Instead of regularizing appointments of long-term employees the government is going backwards and taking away even the yearly sense of job-security that ad-hoc employees receive from year-wise contractual appointments.
During the protests held at Delhi University’s North Campus yesterday, DUTA reiterated its demand for a onetime UGC Regulation for the Absorption of all ad-hoc and temporary teachers in DU and its colleges where regular appointments have not been made in over a decade for one bogus reason or the other. The University Grants Commission (UGC) and Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) have maintained a disturbing silence over the years and have even shirked the responsibility of holding the VC of DU accountable for meeting the demands of DU’s employees.
Thousands of teachers have taken to the streets of Delhi to ensure that thousands don’t lose their full-time jobs for no particular or valid reason. The August circular passed by DU is not only unjust and arbitrary but has resulted in months of salaries being withheld of thousands of ad-hoc teachers in DU.
