The teachers participating in the strike would not hold any online classes and will abstain from performing official duties and administrative work during the strike period.
The Delhi University Teachers' Association (DUTA) will be on a three-day strike from 16 to 18 September. The strike comes as a result of a crisis being faced by as many as 1500 employees including teaching and non-teaching staff of 12 colleges due to the non-payment of salaries and pensions since the month of May.
These 12 colleges, affiliated to the University of Delhi, are fully funded by the Government of National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi. The colleges are Acharya Narendra Dev College, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, Bhagini Nivedita College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Indira Gandhi Institute of Physical Education & Sports Sciences, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Maharaja Agarsen College, Maharshi Valmiki College of Education, Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, and Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies.
The teachers participating in the strike would not hold any online classes and will abstain from performing official duties and administrative work during the strike period.
Earlier this month, the DUTA observed a Black Teachers' Day on 5 September, including a physical protest and an online protest on Facebook and Twitter to stand in solidarity with the 12 colleges' teachers. The DUTA had also organised a protest at Mandi House on 21 August regarding the same issue.
“Over 2000 employees and their families are suffering for no faults of theirs. Can we imagine life in an expensive city without salaries for 5 months! A Government which shows that it cares for education is starving institutions of higher education for funds. This is how institutions are destroyed. [The] Delhi Government has not paid a penny in [the] last few months towards [the] maintenance of these 12 colleges. What is worse is that in this pandemic, the Government forgot that employees of these colleges are citizens of Delhi and their well-being is a responsibility of the Delhi Government,” said Dr Abha Dev Habib, Treasurer, DUTA to Hindu College Gazette.
On Tuesday, some teachers of the University approached the Delhi High Court with a petition requesting the release of their pending salaries. According to reports, the petition is likely to come up for hearing on September 17. The DUTA, on behalf of the aggrieved staff, has been reportedly writing to the Government of Delhi for the release of funds to the 12 colleges to enable them to pay salaries due to their employees, but to no avail yet.