Delhi University teachers stage protest over '80% displacement of ad-hoc teachers'

NEW DELHI: Delhi University teachers staged demonstrations during an DU Executive Council meeting on Monday against the massive displacements of ad-hoc and temporary teachers and non-formation of governing bodies in 28 city government-funded DU colleges.

Demanding the absorption of ad-hoc and temporary teachers, members of the Delhi University Teachers' Association staged a protest during the meeting and outside the vice-chancellor's office.

The Academic for Action and Development Delhi Teachers’ Association – the AAP's teachers' wing – also staged a demonstration during the Executive Council meeting and demanded the immediate formation of governing bodies in DU colleges funded by the Delhi government.

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The teachers protest was led by the Academic for Action and Development Delhi Teachers' Association's Seema Das and Rajpal Singh Pawar -- both members of the DU Executive Council.

Seema Das, an EC member from AADTA, stated that “DU has been reneging on its promise of no displacement and warned that this is leading to the harassment of thousands of adhoc and temporary teachers working in the colleges of the university”. She said that over 80% teachers are being displaced by DU at present.

Aditya Narayan Mishra, the national incharge of AADTA, highlighted the plight of the professors and demanded that the DU administration stop arbitrarily displacing adhoc and temp teachers and denying absorption. He also said that the non-formation for governing bodies has led to teachers being displaced.

Notably, on January 27, the then deputy chief minister, Manish Sisodia, wrote to DU VC stating Delhi government policy for absorption of ad-hoc and temporary teachers. The next day the city government sent the list of nominees for GBs to the University.

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However, the list was not brought in an EC meeting held on February 3. “When EC members Seema Das and RS Pawar demanded to place it, the VC in the Chair said that there was some technical problem. On February 15, 2023: The university administration arbitrarily sent 3 GB nominees to Bharati College violating DU's Statute 30(1) and EC Resolution 51 (2012),” the teachers association said in a statement.

The letter dated February 17 came after some of the 28 DU colleges, including Swami Shraddhanand college, held interviews on February 16, without the government’s consent. The AAP has also called for an end to the harassment of professors and the implementation of fair employment practices in DU.