Devika Mittal

Introducing contractual/guest appointment is actually a marker towards the privatisation of DU and higher education. There exists a piercing hierarchy between the permanent and ad-hoc teachers. This hierarchy is reinforced not only in the form of behaviour but the tendency to pass off all extra burden of teaching and administrative work to ad-hoc teachers. In many colleges, ad-hoc teachers do the work which they are not even authorised to do.

As I write this, hundreds of us are sitting in front of the vice chancellor's office in the North campus of University of Delhi. This is our twentieth day of indefinite protest. Braving the shivers of the December night and morning, we are protesting to save our job and to end the slavery of ad-hocism by demanding regularization of our appointment.

What prompted us to come together was the 28 August 2019 circular issued by the Delhi University Vice Chancellor stating that there will only be guest appointments until permanent recruitments are done, which made the ad-hoc system non-existent. At the end of the semester (16 Nov, 2019), 4500 of us lost our job. If retained, we would have been demoted as guest lecturers. After our protests, which saw thousands of teachers sitting outside the VC office and our boycott of invigilation and other official duties, the Ministry of Human Resource Development decided to amend the letter and gave back our jobs as ad-hoc teachers until permanent recruitment is done. It, however, means little to us.

We are ad-hoc teachers and there is no limit to the hypocrisy and discrimination that we face from the system. We have no job security. The only thing regular in our job is the “break in service”, which we get every few months. We get re-appointment letters only a few days after our earlier appointment expires, which affects our work experience. We get no 'benefits' like maternity leave, or leave to complete our PhD. These cannot be seen as even 'benefits'. My colleagues have worked during full pregnancy. In one of the gatherings, an ad-hoc teacher broke down sharing her experience. She shared that the delivery was due for the first week of August but since the joining date in colleges is around 20 July, she had got her delivery preponed. She had no option as she was told that it was mandatory for ad-hoc teachers to join on the first day of the semester.

DU teachers climbing the police barricade during a protest

There is no exaggeration when I say that we live in the shadow of fear, we don't know what new farman is coming and how further will it worsen our lives. We face a double discrimination. There are those who take advantage of the system. There exists a piercing hierarchy between the permanent and ad-hoc teachers. This hierarchy is reinforced not only in the form of behaviour but the tendency to pass off all extra burden of teaching and administrative work to ad-hoc teachers. In many colleges, ad-hoc teachers do the work which they are not even authorised to do. There are many situations wherein it is the ad-hoc who is doing all the work, but has to depend on the permanent teacher for a mere signature or a nominal approval. The nature and extent of daily discrimination may vary among colleges, but it exists. Many would not even dare to speak about it. There is a strong culture of silence around this hierarchy and discrimination. What sustains this system is the fact that since the ad-hoc faculty need to be re-appointed, they have to be in the good books of everyone, including permanent teachers.

The Myth of Efficiency and Accountability

There are those who defend contractual or guest appointments with everyone's favourite argument of ‘increasing efficiency and accountability’. If we know how the system works, we would know that unless you overhaul the system, this is just a modern myth, and the one which will hurt the ad-hoc teachers even more. Their exploitation will increase. The same can be said for the opposition to the demand for absorption of ad-hocs as permanent teachers. Statistically and practically, it is the ad-hoc teachers who run the university. Besides teaching, ad-hoc teachers are also part of various committees in college and are involved in administrative work. To absorb us without interview (the politics of which is an open secret) is fair and an end to the institutionalised slavery that we have faced over years.

Moreover, it is a faulty conception that degrees or writing papers for which ad-hoc teachers get no time is more valuable than the amount of work and years (some have been working in same college for about 10 years) that we have given to the institutions where we work. In some colleges, the ad-hocs have established entire departments, without any permanent teacher.

We are the First in Line of Firing, Agenda is the Destruction of Higher Education

This situation masks the real agenda of doing away with appointments on ad-hoc basis. Introducing contractual/guest appointment (the ultimate goal after or before any permanent recruitment) is actually a marker towards the privatisation of DU and higher education. We have already been dealing with "fund-cut", having to hear it daily and especially when we have to organise student activities. While we had not anticipated that this fund-cut would eventually be compensated from our salaries, we now know that the next in line are the students. Students of many universities, besides JNU, are protesting against fee hike. Delhi University is next in line.

 

These neoliberal policies, however, will work only to destroy education and the meaning of it. We are going to train or become citizens who will not think because they will have student loans to pay, and will only want a marketable degree. We are all going to become mute spectators of a regime which will have full control over our body (right to life) and mind (power to think).

Devika Mittal teaches in a college in University of Delhi.