Teacher on footpath: Loans to repay, kids to feed

NEW DELHI: Vivek Bhatia sits near the Sultanpuri railway crossing and sells clothes to make a living. Bhatia is a teacher in a North Delhi Municipal Corporation-run primary school, but with the civic body unable to pay the salaries of teachers for several months now, the desperate 37-year-old had to set up a roadside stall to put some money in his wallet. Bhatia has loans to repay and the school fees of his children to pay.Worried to the extreme, and finding no other way, Bhatia took to his new avocation 52 days back.
“I am selling clothes just a kilometre from my school, but I had to overcome my hesitation and embarrassment in order to survive. At least, it’s better than begging,” murmured Bhatia, who teaches in the G Block primary school at Sultanpuri. “Despite serving the city in the ration distribution centres and in carrying out door-to-door surveys to identify Covid-infected people, we teachers are treated in this manner.”
More than 9,000 primary teachers of the north corporation, all of whom have been on special duty during the pandemic, some at ration centres, others as Covid surveyors, yet others as emergency workers, received their last salaries in July. Bhatia joined the teaching department of the corporation in 2006. “The trouble began in 2014, with our salary delayed for 10 days,” explained the teacher. “The delays then stretched to a month, two month and now we haven’t been paid for five months. Why can’t we be paid for our hard work? It’s not as if we are demanding someone else’s money.”
Bhatia, who has a mother, wife and three children to look after, had taken a loan of Rs 15 lakh to renovate this house when it got damaged. “At that time, the municipal corporation’s financial condition was okay and we were being paid on time. But now, when I am getting even my family’s rations on credit, how can I pay the loan instalments and the school fees of my kids?” Bhatia despaired.
The teachers got the salaries for July only in November, just before Diwali. The June salaries had been paid in August. Bhatia claims 80% of his salary now goes into repaying loans and interests. “You can imagine my plight at being forced to indirectly pay interest to people from whom I have had to take loans when I am eligible for a monthly salary from my employer organisation,” he said.
With 9,000 others of Bhatia’s ilk also in dire straits, New Year doesn’t seem worth celebrating. Not surprising then, one of the primary teachers’ unions has decided that the first day of 2021 will be observed as a ‘black day’.