JNU: Sanitation worker’s body found hanging from tree on campus; claim links to delay in wages

NEW DELHI: A sanitation worker was found hanging from a tree in Jawaharlal Nehru University campus on Monday. The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association (JNUTA) claimed that the worker took the extreme step due to “irregular and delayed wages, which sometimes spanned months in JNU”.

On May 20, Vijay Valmiki, the sanitation worker who was posted at Paschimabad, was found hanging from a tree in JNU. He had performed all his duties before taking the extreme step, the teachers said. Vijay is a resident of Kusumpur Pahari and a father of three children.

The JNUTA said Vijay Valmiki was active participant in voicing the issues on “illegal and unethical practices” on behalf of his union.

“Sanitary workers and other contract workers in JNU have been valiantly struggling against such illegality and injustice. Vijay Valmiki had been active in the struggle by his union against these illegal and unethical practices that the JNU administration has routinely, and had made significant contributions to the periodic victory of these struggles,” the JNU teachers said.

“The delays and irregularity have been especially compounded for sanitary workers in JNU who belong to the bottom most layer of the graded social labour hierarchy. This along with the increasing onerous contractualisation and casualisation of essential jobs which are perennial in nature is blatantly illegal,” it said.

“The JNU administration has been committing these illegalities with impunity for years now. This is ironical for an administration that always flaunts itself as the ‘topmost’ university in the country,” it added.

Expressing condolence, the teachers group demanded the JNU administration to take responsibility for Vijay Valmiki’s “institutional murder” as the principal employer.