LUDHIANA: Approximately 600 children with disability in the district were left in the lurch as volunteers under inclusive education boycotted classes for not getting salary for the past 10 months. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ludhiana/Teachers-strike-hits-600-kids-with-disability/articleshow/50602296.cms On Thursday, the Association of Inclusive Education had staged a protest at Bharat Nagar Chowk against Punjab Government for not releasing their salary of Rs 4,500 per month. And from Friday onwards, 92 volunteers of Ludhiana district boycotted the classes saying they would not join their duty unless they get their due salaries.
In the district education department (elementary), there are as many as 36 inclusive education research teachers and 92 volunteers. Though these volunteers were hired to find out disabled children in different areas but later on education department started hiring researchers to teach disabled children as volunteers. These volunteers taught disabled children, who could walk, in recourse rooms and gave home-based education for others. Vice-president of Association of Inclusive Education Volunteers, Ludhiana, Gurwinder Singh Budhewal said, "We get merely Rs 4500 (which includes Rs 500 traveling allowance) per month. However, for the past 10 months, we have not got our salary and it is similar in the entire state." He added, "We have met chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, education minister Daljeet Singh Cheema and even gheraoed finance minister Parminder Singh Dhindsa on January 1. Though we were assured that we would get our due salaries within a week, we have not got a single penny till date. So we decided to boycott classes." Further he said the boycott would continue till they get their salaries and government increases their salary to at least Rs 12,000 excluding TA, DA. Meanwhile, parents of disabled children were a worried lot. A parent of a special kid from Sahnewal, Harcharan Singh said, "My son has started responding. He has become more active only because of these volunteers. Now if the volunteer stops teaching and training him, he would again become inactive. These volunteers have done wonder and should be given reward for that." Another parent from Pakhowal, Beant Singh said, "A camp for disabled kids is organized by the end of January every year to distribute goods of their needs. More such camps are in the pipeline. Who will take our kids there? Their growth will stop without their teachers." -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
