HYDERABAD: Government school teachers play a crucial role in the conduct of elections. However, they are wary of poll duty. Women teachers in particular, shy away from these duties due to a host of challenges they generally encounter during this exercise. Apart from the difficulty they face in reaching remote places, they are afraid of non-availability of food, toilets and proper accommodation. Most teachers are unwilling to participate in election duty but do so only under compulsion from higher officials. Nearly 45 per cent of all teachers who will be deployed for poll duty are women.
“We get to know the location of the polling booth where we will be deployed only a day before the polling day. There is not much we can do if we have to go to some far-flung location. What’s worse is that we are expected to find our way to the location and come back on our own,” said a woman government teacher from the city. Often, family members of such officials urge them against going for duty since transport facility is not taken care of by EC.
Also, once the polling is completed, vehicles with paramilitary personnel would collect and transport only EVMs. Officials have to find their way back irrespective of time. “In remote villages there are no toilets, drinking water or rooms for women teachers to change clothes. One time I had to request a family in the village we were deployed to let me stay in their house for the night and use the toilet because I was menstruating and the school that was allotted to us did not have a washroom. The next day, polling was delayed by an hour because there was no water for teachers to even to brush their teeth,” said Sai Jyothi, a teacher.
Taking into account plight of women teachers, the Telangana State United Teachers Federation had requested the EC to deploy teachers within a 50 km radius. “But this time too, the request has not been accepted. Teachers will have to travel anywhere between 160-200 km to reach their allotted booths. Offering services for election is a national duty and we are not averse to doing it. But EC should ensure basic minimum facilities to teachers,” said Chava Ravi, general secretary, TSUTF.
Barring teachers who suffer from severe ailments, feeding mothers and disabled, who constitute barely 10 per cent all teachers employed in the state-run schools, all others are pressed into election work.
Once teachers are intimated about their duty area, they are expected to reach the booth by that afternoon. Till the end of the elections, they are supposed to stay there.