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A Timeline of Notifications, MoUs, and Changing Criterions

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Exploring the history of the events that triggered the ongoing unrest within DU’s academia.

In October 2017, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had introduced rules, making reservation applicable at the department level instead of university level. The UGC rules had followed an Allahabad High Court order of April 2017, which was upheld by the Supreme Court. The High Court had struck down a UGC circular on institution-wise quota to fill vacant Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) posts, pointing out that there were departments without any SC/ST teachers. The new UGC rules had led to widespread protests across universities with professors, and critics saying that such a move will deprive many reserved candidates of their jobs.

In March 2018, UGC issued a fresh order with new clauses that asked for a roster system, sparking an instant backlash in the university system. Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) said that, till now, the UGC had specifically prohibited the practice of making department-wise cadres, as that would lead to the denial of reservation in small departments. In June 2018, DUTA organized ‘satyagraha’ amid reports of autonomisation of the University of Delhi (DU), by calling off the evaluation for this semester’s examination papers. Members cited this move as ‘anti-education, and anti-people policy pronouncements of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development.’ In particular, the teachers were strongly opposed to the 30%-70% funding formula, the tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) requiring steady increase in students’ fees, graded autonomy, and the scheme of autonomous colleges. The DU administration later via a press release pleaded teachers to start the evaluation soon. In response to the ongoing protest about reservation roster, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) drafted a bill that stipulates for the maintainence of the vacancy roasters university wise at all centrally funded higher education institutions to implement reservation of faculty members in November 2018.

In December 2018, agitation with respect to the government’s failure to implement the Seventh Pay Commission in totality for universities translated into more protests. The notification for implementation of revised allowances, and pensions, consequent to the Seventh pay Commission, and disbursal of the required funds for its implementation are still pending, according to the memebers of the DUTA.

In January 2019, a two day shutdown was triggered by the Vice Chancellor’s (VC) refusal to table the report of the Recommendation Committee constituted to review the UGC gazette notification related to teachers’ service conditions. Dr. Rakesh, a member of DUTA spoke to DU Beat. He said, “VC has launched new terms to count the served time period, which harms us. He hasn’t enforced the UGC guidelines, which relieves the ad hocs.” Thousands of teaching, and nonteaching permanent posts remain vacant, while teachers and karamcharis have been working on ad hoc posts for many years. Ad hoc teachers lack job security, and employment benefits. They demand regularisation, and absorption of temporary, and ad hoc teachers. They also accused the government of sweeping the reservation roster issue under the rug, owing to their silence on the matter. Dr. A.M. Khan, a member of DUTA, expressed dissatisfaction with the Ministry, VC and the Government, saying, “There were very high hopes with regard to the new government, but unfortunately the opposite happened. Thus, everyone is on the streets today”.

Feature Image Credits: Aakarsh Gupta for DU Beat.

Nikita Bhatia

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In Her Own Words: A Teacher’s Struggle with Ad-hocism for 20 Years and Counting

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A first hand account of Dr. Asha Devi, an ad hoc professor at Hindi Department of Aditi Mahavidyalaya. She talks about the difficulties ad hoc teachers have been facing for over two decades. 

“I joined the University of Delhi (DU) as a lecturer in Aditi Mahavidyalaya in1996 on ad-hoc basis. I used to change three buses to reach the college since it was two hours away from my residence.  With a Doctorate in Hindi, double Masters in Hindi, and Mass Communication, I was sure that I’ll soon get a permanent job in the University. I was also the Class 12th topper in Hindi in CBSE Examinations, 1985. I still have the journal where my interview was published. Even at that time, I had said that I wanted to be a lecturer when I was asked about my goals.

I did my Bachelors, Masters, M.Phil and Ph.D in Hindi from DU. I cleared NET with JRF in 1991 in the first trial. In 1999, my daughter was born, and being an ad-hoc I wasn’t given maternity leave. I was thrown out of my job but I did not lose hope. I continuously kept teaching in various colleges of the University as a guest lecturer, and even agreed to give a single lecture a week. In 2001, the interviews for permanent posts of faculties were conducted in Aditi Mahavidyalaya. I wasn’t selected despite a good interview because the already appointed lecturers were given preferences. I joined Aditi Mahavidyalaya again in 2002, again on an ad hoc basis. In 2004, the interviews for permanent posts were conducted again, but due to nepotism, I was thrown out from my job for the third time. Even now, when I think about the 2004 interview, I feel extremely miserable, helpless, and depressed. The thought that someone else took my job because they had better contacts and money than me still haunts me.

Since then, I have been filling the application forms for other colleges of DU spending around INR 500 to INR 1000 on each form. Every year, thousands of applicants fill these forms, but the interviews never take place. If they do, I for sure never get selected, despite proper experience, and qualifications. I taught in a private university for a year where my salary was even lesser than what I used to get in DU.

Since I have been teaching in Aditi Mahavidyalaya for long, it feels like my second home. However, there is still a fear that this home will never accept me completely, and would throw me out. My daughter is pursuing her graduation from Miranda House. She often asks me to join her college, but it is not that easy. I can only dream of teaching as a permanent faculty. Every four months, I have a weird feeling in my gut which leaves me wondering whether I’ll get the letter this time or not. I am the sole bread earner of the family. I have two kids, and less money to spend on their education. I am under many loans. I want to make sure that they don’t suffer because of the system, like I have.

One thing I am sure of is that is I know my job very well. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been teaching for 20 years. Since 1996, I have also been the in-charge of many committees, and societies of Aditi Mahavidyalaya. I was the convener of NCC for nearly six years. I used to be given tasks to take the NCC students for outdoor camps. If I were so impotent, who would assign me tasks like these?

Sometimes, students of other disciplines tell me that they want to attend my lecture. This makes my day. Whatever happens in college affects me a lot. I tell my daughter everything that happens in a day. It occupies a huge part of my life. It’s too late for me to learn something new, and start all over again. All I want to ask is: What is my fault?, The fact that I didn’t give in to the system or, deserved to be treated fairly.

Feature Image Credits: Dr. Asha Devi

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Crumbling Infrastructure and the Ad-Hoc Culture are Dragging DU Down

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It’s 2017 and the University of Delhi (DU) is crumbling under degrading infrastructure, a culture of ad-hoc and degrading standards of education; the only sustenance is DU’s history and the pride associated with it and the sense of exclusivity and hype partly owed to the ridiculously high-cut-offs.

Delhi University with its ridiculously high cut-offs, glitzy fests, and star nights and a long list of alumni winning accolades in the world of politics, films and academia, has a lot to boast of.  Its reputation and prestige, along with its hype and exclusivity make it a dream institution for students across the country. The culturally rich and “woke” campus is coveted by undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students across the country. But Delhi University has been systematically degrading to meet not just global standards, but it has failed to match up to the infrastructure and resources offered in colleges in India. Globally, DU is ranked as 481-490 by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) rankings, which is largely regarded as the most accurate ranking for universities.

The ugly truth about the University of Delhi is that despite having some of the best students and faculty members from across the country, it fails to reach its full potential or even push its own horizons. Ceilings have fallen in Daulat Ram College and College of Vocational Studies, Gargi College students complained of lack of an adequate number of washrooms, and most colleges are witnessing their main building slowly crumble away. A significant lack in number of classrooms for tutorials, no proper arrangements for recreational and extra-curricular activities, and a severe shortage of adequate sports facilities is a problem faced across colleges in DU. India has grown out of the phase where it only had the bare-minimum- when the then Prime Minister Shastri had to ask citizens to fast once a week due to grain shortage. But while the rest of the country has come out of that era of scraping by and having only the bare-minimum, DU has not. Apart from the top five or six colleges, most of the colleges still lack proper resources, auditoriums, and interactive classrooms. But infrastructural resources or the lack of them is not Delhi University’s only problem, the ad-hoc culture is as well. The practice of inviting teachers to teach temporarily in colleges as ad-hoc lecturers has become extremely common. As a consequence of this, lecturers often shuffle from college to college as they are replaced. Since their jobs are not permanent and are highly dependent on the authorities’ whims and fancies, most ad-hoc lecturers find themselves under immense pressure to meet the expectations of their immediate superiors. This is necessarily a bad thing because lecturers have often complained of ill-treatment under such a system, as is evident by the extensive number of protests that take place regarding the same issue. While these academics dedicate their time to save their jobs and seek a certain degree of stability in their lives, any autonomy that they have- to teach with absolute freedom, confidence, and passion, to criticise anyone from college authorities to governments and administrations, to speak fearlessly without censoring their opinion- is snatched from them. Most of us would think this isn’t a particularly big problem; after all they are completely free to teach the prescribed curriculum as they please. But the point is, Delhi University gets its je ne sais quoi from the kind of space it reserves to discuss unconventional and unpopular opinions. The very spirit of the university can be summed up by its culture of questioning and challenging status quo and the emphasis it lays on political awareness, activism, and protests. When its academia- the people responsible for providing students not just knowledge about the curriculum but also about the world- tread with fear and are afraid to speak their minds, students may also be afraid to do the same.

Times are changing and universities across the world are constantly innovating and offering its students better facilities. Those attempting to silence me for criticising DU’s lack of resources might say that since DU offers a highly subsidised education, it cannot obviously meet global standards due to financial reasons. The truth is, even Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) offer a subsidised education (while there was a revision in the fee structure, a professional degree is bound to cost more) as well. To say that one government-funded institute can have adequate resources at its disposal while another cannot, makes little sense. Change is the only constant and those who fail to evolve, stagnate and then disintegrate. For the University of Delhi to continue living up to its hype, it needs to evolve and adapt to modern times. Better resources, facilities for students and teachers and reformations in its problematic ad-hoc culture are some ways in which it can do the same.

 

Feature Image Credits: DU Beat

Kinjal Pandey

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Delhi University’s Ad-hoc teachers go on a hunger strike to earn a permanent status

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Over 200 ad-hoc faculty members of University of Delhi observed a day-long hunger strike on Friday, April, 28th, 2017. The strike was observed in order to press their demand to be absorbed as permanent faculty by the University.

The hunger-strike was organised at the Delhi University Arts’ Faculty premises where the ad-hoc faculty members from across the University discussed the problems and irregularities they are subject to by the University. According to Himanshu Singh, an Assistant Professor (ad-hoc) at Satyawati College (Evening),  these teachers are not being made permanent for a long time, and are forced to enjoy a sub-par status, which does not allow them to enjoy the privileges/facilities the permanent members get. He also added while in conversation with IANS, “Some of us have been teaching us for more than ten years, some even more. Why are we not good enough for permanent status, when the university can trust us with teaching students, their evaluation, and their careers?”

The Assistant Professor also told that the ad-hoc teachers are hired through the same selection process as permanent teachers.

According to another ad-hoc teacher from Satyawati College, they will also march to the Vice-Chancellor’s office and present him with a charter on their demands. The Delhi University Teachers’ Association extended its complete support to the protesting teachers in their bid to earn a permanent faculty status in the University.

 

Feature Image Credits: indianexpress.com

 

Priyal Mahtta

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