Jharkhand teachers protest census duties

RANCHI - Teachers in Jharkhand are attending schools wearing black bands to protest the government’s move to make them conduct census operations, a teachers’ union official said Friday.

A circular issued by the state human resources development (HRD) last week asked teachers to work in their schools for three hours and engage in census work for the other three hours.

“We are against the circular of the HRD department. We should be engaged in only one work instead of two. It is difficult for us to strike balance in both work. We always protest that teachers services taken for updating voter list and in census work. The government should make alternative arrangements for such works,” Jharkhand Teachers Association member Devi Prasad told reporters.

The teachers are attending schools from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. and after that are engaged in the census work.

“The HRD department does not want that the students’ studies are affected due to census work and this is the reason why we have divided the school time in two parts so that both of the work could be done,” a HRD department official told IANS.