They can be equated to “COVID-19 warriors”, the Delhi High Court observed last month. This is how Vikas Kumar can also be described in a nutshell. Like any other frontline workers in the line of COVID duty, the two months have not been an easy journey for him. Kumar wakes up at 6 am, reaches a dispensary at south-east Delhi’s Hari Nagar by 9 am where he has been deployed to aid the administration’s efforts to tackle the pandemic and wraps up his work at 6.00 pm. But the work this 27-year-old physical instructor at a Delhi government school doesn’t end here.
After reaching home, Vikas Kumar has to prepare content for online classes, assignments on mind-body wellness and yoga for the next day and remains in touch with students on WhatsApp. Kumar claims the last time he got a break when he had tested positive for coronavirus on July 1 but was back on duty on July 17, without taking proper rest. Kumar is among those 30,000 teachers from Delhi government schools, and another 7,000 from municipal corporation schools who have been engaged to help the government’s efforts to tackle the outbreak and ease the impact of the lockdown. Their roles vary from pitching in with ration distribution to serving shifts at quarantine centres.
More than 5,000 teachers deployed on the COVID-19 duty have tested positive. Moreover, a total of seven teachers, including three MCD and four Delhi government, have succumbed to coronavirus so far.
“When I was first asked to join the COVID duty, my parents were reluctant to let me go. But, I am happy to be part of the government’s fight against the pandemic. The only thing that disturbs me is that it has been more than a month since I could not touch or play with my nephew,” says Vikas Kumar.
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Like many other healthcare workers, Kumar takes shower outside his home, enters his bedroom from the backdoor and eat food in separate utensils which his mother keeps outside the room. “Then starts his school duty. I prepare assignments and make videos for the happiness class. We have to spare equal time for students and society,” adds Kumar. He, however, feels that a frontline worker should be given at least 21 days, if tests positive for the virus, to recover completely. “The government should also provide psychological support to the COVID warriors who have tested positive. We call patients every day to know about their health status and boost their confidence,” he says.
Sant Ram, a 50-year-old senior teacher of a Delhi government boys school in Subhash Nagar and an elected member of the Delhi Government School Association West District, was posted at a dry ration distribution centre at the same school. Ram, while working in a hectic schedule of almost 12 hours a day, managed the public, at times agitated, and his school teachers and students online. “Despite the busy schedule of ration distribution, I took out time to hold online classes for students. I attended seminars and meetings in between the COVID duty. Besides school admissions, classes, managing students, book distribution and others, keeping a record of ration loads, trucks and managing the public was a big challenge,” adds Ram.
The school head says he holds no grudge against the government but requests Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to reconsider the decision of calling the teachers who test positive for COVID-19 to join the duty soon after they recover. “Most of the staff in my school are deployed on the COVID duty. Many of them have also tested positive. But the government asks them to join the work as soon as they test negative. They are not getting adequate time to take rest,” says Ram, who has been given a break from the duty for a few days. Gopal Sharma, another government school teacher, monitored the distribution of dry ration to hunger relief centres and shelter homes.
“When the lockdown was imposed, I was deployed at a CBSE evaluation centre. Since May 15, my school has been turned into a shelter home for migrant labourers. I worked there till late at night. I was supervising the shelter home and looking after food, medicine and distributions,” says Sharma. For Anil, principal of Savordya Bal Vidyalaya in Jhilmil colony, says managing the COVID services and children at the same time wasn’t easy initially, but he has pulled it off with the help of his team. He had also tested positive for the virus but recovered recently.
Since he has been assigned for the COVID duty, he is interacting with his children, wife and other family members through video calls for the last two months. “At times, I badly want to hug my children and wife, but I know it’s not possible right now. This causes mental and psychological distress,” says the 54-year-old principal, who is deployed at a dry ration centre. He says one of the challenges that he faces at the moment is to convince parents to come to the school and collect study material of their wards. Many parents are daily labourers. If they take leave, they may lose their job, he says.
“When I had tested positive, I shifted to another flat for self-isolation. In the beginning, being a patient with low immunity, managing everything — from cooking to cleaning — was tough. But with family support, I recovered completely,” Anil says. According to him, even after the recovery, the behaviour of his neighbours hurt him the most. “Once my children went out for a walk, a neighbour asked them to leave the place saying ‘your father is positive’,” he laments. Many other teachers, on condition of anonymity, expressed their resentment against taking online classes and doing the COVID duty at the same time.
“Managing both is hectic. Besides the COVID work, women teachers have to look after their family, children and online classes which is next to impossible,” says a woman teacher. She requests the government to deploy the teachers on a rotational basis like other frontline workers. “Doing a 12-hour shift, that too without a leave, is very tough,” the teacher adds.
The frontline workers such as doctors and nurses have been working on a rotational basis. For instance, 15 days of work and 15 days of rest. In May, the teachers’ association had also written letters to Kejriwal highlighting various issues. Initially, teachers deployed on the COVID duty were excluded from the ‘corona warrior’ status. If any COVID warrior dies performing his/her duty, the family gets a compensation of Rs 1 crore According to officials, many teachers have applied for voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) after being deployed in the COVID duty. They said in many schools, lab assistants and non-teaching staff are taking online classes due to lack of teachers.
Conditions of MCD school teachers
The MCD schools are mostly are up to Class V. In Delhi, the MCD is divided inTO three parts — South MCD, East MCD and North MCD. According to the All India Primary Teachers Association, there are about 12,000 teachers employed in MCD schools, of which 7,000 are deployed in the COVID duty and more than 2,000 teachers have tested positive for the COVID-19.
“My entire family is dependent on me. From buying grocery to cooking, I have to take care of everything. Even after taking all precautions, seven members in my family, including my four-year-old daughter, have caught the disease. The condition of MCD teachers is so bad that we did not even get face masks, sanitisers and hand gloves. We had to buy everything on our own,” says Seema Mathur, a senior teacher at an MCD school in C-block, Sultanpuri.
She adds: “I was looking after a hunger relief centre and managing ration truck loading. The authority did not even spare women and called us even at 11 pm. The civic authority has not allocated salaries to the teachers for the last four months. The worst condition is in the North MCD.” “We are not against the COVID duty, but we have the right to get proper PPE kits and salary on time as we are working in containment zones. Other frontline workers are working shifts, but we do not even get weekly offs.
“I speak to my husband and parents on video calls despite living in the same house to maintain social distancing,” said the 33-year-old teacher. Naveen Sangwan, an MCD senior teacher at a school in north Delhi, is a sole earner of the family, But he has not received his salary for the last four months. He and his family had tested positive for the virus. “I along with 10 other teachers had tested positive for the COVID-19, but the department did not even provide us with masks and sanitisers. I had to get back to work soon after I recovered.
I have also worked in different locations of the city and for almost all COVID services. On the other hand, Delhi government teachers have been provided with face shields, hand gloves and face masks,” says Sangwan. The 37-year-old teacher, who lives with his two daughters and wife, adds: “Due to this laidback attitude of the MCD, many of my colleagues have lost their parents and other members in their family after they came in contact with my colleagues, who had tested positive.” Sangwan claims he washes his face masks and gloves every day to reuse them as he doesn’t have money to purchase a new one.
“A good N-95 mask costs Rs 500. Instead, I use that money to buy grocery for a week,” he says.
Teachers of MCD schools have also raised the matter in the past and even held a protest demanding the release of their salaries. The SDMC released the salary last week, but the North DMC is yet to pay the pending wages. When contacted, an MCD official says: “The north mayor and additional commissioner (education) recently held a meeting with delegations of the North DMC teachers. Their salaries will be released soon.”
Teachers request to allow them back into school duty
Last month, teachers in government schools had come up with a list of demands, including better safety measures and assurances, from the government. Teachers had also requested the government to stop assigning them for relief work and allow them back into school duty. This came after a principal of a government school in Kalyanpuri had died of COVID-19.
Teachers are also ‘corona warriors’: Delhi High Court
Teachers belong to one of the noble professions and as they are made to do COVID-19 duty also, they can be equated to COVID-19 warriors, a division bench of Justices Hima Kohli and S Prasad said last month while observing that teachers of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation schools have not received salaries since March. Calling the issue as “a sorry state of affairs”, the high court converted the plea into a “suo motu petition”.
Types of COVID services
Hunger food centre dry ration centres shelter homes isolation wards medical check-ups surveys at COVID containment zones labourers’ transportation airports and railway and bus stations