Bihar teachers protest with begging bowls at temple, paralyzing school education

Nearly 4.5 lakh contractual teachers, also known as "Niyojit Shikshak" have been on an indefinite strike since February 17, demanding pay parity with regular teachers and regularisation of their service conditions as per the Supreme Court's order.
As a result of the strike, education in 76,000 primary and middle schools across Bihar have been paralyzed. 

In a dramatic move, the teachers in large numbers wearing black bands and yellow headgear decided to protest with a begging bowl at Patna's Hanuman Mandir.

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Government firm on its stand

The government is in no mood to relent and says it doesn't have finances to meet up the demands. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in a public meeting on March 1 said, "the government cannot take the teachers on rolls from the contract, but will certainly take care of enhancing the salary and other benefits. It was I who got them recruited and more than 3 lakh teachers were appointed but if you want to strike then I cannot help."

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The teachers are in no mood to relent and have decided to intensify their protest at the district and block headquarters all across the state. Brajnandan Sharma, State convener of Bihar Rajya Shikshak Samanya Samiti said, "the contractual teachers of all the 76,000 schools would press for regularisation of service and if the government does not heed to their demands then they will intensify their stir and paralyze education system."

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A couple of days back, the protesting teachers had staged a protest outside the residence of Bihar Deputy CM Sushil Modi. The teachers are on strike for the past 2 weeks despite the supreme court also rejecting the demands of protesting teachers. Government has lodged FIR on some of the teachers and is also thinking about terminating the contract of teachers who do not resume duty as soon as possible.

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