Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (DPCC) president Devender Yadav on Thursday demanded Rs one crore compensation for the family of a Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) school teacher who, unable to cope with the pressure of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work alongside her teaching responsibilities, allegedly died of cardiac arrest.
Addressing a press conference, Yadav alleged that the death of 51-year-old Suman Lata, who had been assigned Booth Level Officer (BLO) duties under the ongoing SIR exercise, highlighted the mounting pressure on teachers engaged in election-related work.
Calling the incident “a tragedy waiting to happen”, Yadav said, “The death of a teacher working in an MCD school was a tragedy waiting to happen as the teachers assigned for SIR duty have been working under tremendous pressure. Many of them are unable to complete the SIR work while balancing their responsibilities as school teachers.”
He further said, “It was due to the insensitivity of the BJP Government that the 51-year-old teacher, Suman Lata, assigned Booth Level Officer (BLO) duty as part of the ongoing SIR exercise, died of a heart attack, unable to bear the considerable stress she suffered during the SIR exercise.”
Demanding financial assistance for the bereaved family, Yadav said, “The family of the deceased teacher should be given Rs 1 crore compensation.”
He said that following observations by the Supreme Court on the complexity of the SIR process, the Delhi Congress had written to the Lieutenant Governor on April 18, urging intervention to reduce the burden on teachers performing BLO duties.
Referring to another incident, Yadav alleged that a 45-year-old government mathematics teacher, Anand Kumar Saroha, attempted suicide on July 8 after allegedly being unable to cope with the pressure of SIR work while serving as a supervisor.
Yadav also claimed that the large-scale deployment of teachers for SIR and BLO duties was severely disrupting classroom teaching in government schools. He said principals and teachers had repeatedly raised concerns over the impact on education, student safety and compliance with the Right to Education (RTE) norms governing pupil-teacher ratios.
He alleged that in several schools, including those in Bhalswa and GTB Nagar, regular teaching staff had been diverted almost entirely to election-related surveys and data collection, leaving schools dependent on guest teachers to manage large numbers of students.
Criticising both the current BJP government in Delhi and the previous AAP government, Yadav said, “The Rekha Gupta Government has given precedence to deploying teachers for SIR duty over their primary responsibility of teaching students in classrooms. It is no wonder that poor Board examination results and school dropouts have been rising over the past 12 years under first the AAP and now the BJP government.”
Yadav further claimed that, according to data placed in the Rajya Sabha, 107 officials had died during SIR duty in West Bengal, while at least eight BLOs and teachers had died in Uttar Pradesh over a recent 10-day period due to cardiac arrest, brain haemorrhage and suicides allegedly linked to excessive workload.
He accused the Centre and the Election Commission of India of failing to consider the well-being of teachers while implementing the SIR exercise and said teachers should not have been assigned election duties when they were already under pressure to complete the academic curriculum ahead of board examinations.