DUTA Press Release: December 15, 2019

Come rain or sunshine, the DUTA’s Movement for dignified employment and absorption of adhoc teachers has continued without any lull into its 12th day, today. Sunday was reserved for the unique ‘Umbrella Protest Demo’ in which teachers, both adhocs and permanent, assembled with unbrellas at the site of the continuous dharna outside the DU VC’s office. The slogan “Value Teachers, Save DU” was written in bold letters on every umbrella.

The umbrella is a symbol for refuge and inclusivity. Umbrellas also enable individuals to come together and unite to protect themselves. There are umbrellas that are ever present but there are others that are missing. The union and staff associations are umbrellas that are present for every teacher. On the other hand, the MHRD and DU administration are the missing umbrellas that have stopped working for the wellbeing of teachers and education. In that sense, they are missing. Teachers narrated their experiences of exclusion and victimisation and how the presence of the staff associations and DUTA continued to instil them with strength and hope to fight against the hostile treatment meted out to them by the college authorities, DU administration and the anti-teacher MHRD.

The experiences of individual teachers, collected in the form of testimonies, form the moral bedrock of DUTA’s fight for absorption. The unresponsive Government is disconnected from this world of teachers, and by extension, education itself. The MHRD lives in an echo chamber wherein it cannot imagine the excruciating pain and humiliation suffered by the nation’s most educated sections who are being brazenly denied fair employment in the form of permanent jobs and professional opportunities through time-bound promotions.

The DUTA will continue to intensify the Strike and the movement for absorption and promotions in the coming days.