First all-India convention of ad-hoc lecturers to be held tomorrow

NEW DELHI: All India convention of non-regular lecturers of colleges and universities will be held on Sunday, May 8, 2022 at the Hindi Bhavan in New Delhi. The all-India convention is being held for the first time in India with the objective to unite ad hoc professors from across the country to build up a strong movement.

During the convention, the ad-hoc lecturers will request the human resource development ministry and the University Grants Commission (UGC) chairman to formulate and implement a policy for the ad-hoc teachers of colleges and universities, said a statement from the preparatory committee. The committee has put forward certain demands for the ministry to consider. These are:

• Job security: To regularise services according to UGC guidelines.
• To provide a basic pay scale to the ad-hoc lecturers with DA and other amenities till regularisation is done.
• To enable leave facility for ad-hoc lecturers similar to regular teaching staff.
• To extend the retirement age to 65 years at par with permanent staff.

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In the statement, the committee mentioned that ad-hoc lecturers are working for long durations with skills, qualifications and responsibilities equally to regular professors, but the salary provided to them is very less. It pointed out the issue of suicides among ad-hoc lecturers and alleged that neither the central government nor the state governments are implementing the High Court judgements of various states to pay equal pay for equal work. Protests are going on in in many states such as Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and Delhi among others in this regard.

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