CHENNAI: T Vasanthavanan's family members placed a package, containing all his original academic and professional certificates, at the foot of his deceased body on Tuesday, the day after he ended his life. "We knew that his soul will not rest in peace if his certificates were not returned to him. This was the most important part of his funeral," his mother cried.
Vasanthavanan (30), who worked at Sree Sastha Institute of Engineering and Technology earlier this year, accepted an offer from Madras Institute of Technology, about twenty days after he started teaching. When he requested the college to relieve him, the management refused and withheld his certificates, alleged his family members and then colleagues. They further alleged that he was repeatedly threatened that individuals like him who fight powerful college managements, would face consequences. The principal, however, has denied all these charges.
The long battle between the college and Vasanthavanan had an adverse impact on his mental health, his mother said. His long-standing treatment for insomnia and depression stopped working after he started getting threats from the college, she claimed. "The whole incident triggered another episode of insomnia, and the fear of losing proof of his life's worth of credentials, pushed him into taking this extreme step," she said.
What happened to Vasanthavanan is only the tip of the iceberg, say former colleagues and members of Private College Employees Union. "Many colleges, particularly private ones, retain the certificates of staff, as a form of collateral for extortion. Teachers and students are put through tremendous distress before they ultimately get their certificates back," said KM Karthik, the president of the union.
He even coined Vasanthavanan's death as a "credential death", caused by the agony of colleges withholding all original academic and professional records.
Withholding certificates is illegal
The All India Council for Technical Education, in its Approval Process Handbook 2018-19, under section 6.4 has said, "The Institution collecting or withholding any of the original educational professional certificates of a faculty member shall be liable to any one or more of the above said punitive actions by the Council."
The punitive actions range from suspension of approval for supernumerary seats to even withdrawal of approval of the institution. The Supreme Court, responding to a writ petition by KM Karthik in 2017 ordered, "no college should withhold, possess or collect any of the original educational or professional certificates of any staff member and provisions for the imposition of the penalty for the same."
After verifying the original certificates during the appointment, the college should return it immediately, said MK Surappa, the Vice-Chancellor of Anna University. He said that the university will first issue a warning to the college if they receive such complaints about retention of certificates. "If the college continues to hold them in custody even then, we will withdraw our affiliation with it," he said.
At least eight other former teachers from Sree Sastha also told that Vasanthavanan was not the only one who faced trouble retrieving his certificates. Having to fight for months before the college ultimately handed it back to them, has become a regular affair, they claimed. "It has been over 1.5 years since I was relieved from the college. I still haven't received my certificates. I submitted my certificates in June 2015. I haven't gotten any job since," said R Mohan*, a former assistant professor with the mechanical engineering department at the college, adding that faculty are threatened to pay up to Rs 3 lakh to get their documents back. He has not been able to find another job till date.
One of the two college principals, A Shanmugasundaram, denied all allegations and said that Vasanthavannan had not collected his certificates. "We retained it only for a week," he claimed adding that it was the late faculty that did not collect it. Other former faculty members of the college argued that the principal was lying. "Every year, some senior faculty are fired and younger ones with smaller pay packages are hired. But they do not return our certificates if we don't sign a voluntary resignation and pay college to get the no dues form. The harder we fight, the longer they stall the certificate. I could not even apply to other colleges as the academic year had already started," said another faculty.
Vasanthavannan's mother, on the condition of anonymity, said that her son had visited the college several times requesting to get his certificates. "When we kept writing to the college, the college said that they will take legal action against us if he did not join work again.”
His mother said that they even approached the police and tried filing a complaint at the Nazrathpet police station. "The police took us in their patrol vehicle to the college and made us meet the administration. But the college simply kept asking us to come on another day," she claimed.
Sree Sastha had not given him any appointment or offer letter, ID Card or salary, Vasanthavannan is heard saying in call recording allegedly between the other college principal GS Kumarasamy and him. "We can't let anyone come and go at their wish... You have to come and speak conducively (sic) to the Chairman. You can't walk in royally and speak to him. Bring your appointment order from Anna
University and speak to him," the alleged principal said in the recording.
In another call recording, he said, "You cannot fight such a large organisation as an individual. It is better that you come at his feet... speak to the chairman and explain it to him," he said.
The broader problem
The issue of withholding certificates is not restricted to Sree Sastha alone. Most private engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu collect teachers' original academic and professional records during the appointment and return when the faculty is relieved. This tactic is practised to retain staff. While collecting and keeping the certificates in custody when a staff is still working is illegal, some colleges go a step further and hold on to it, even after they've left the institution.
KR Vairamani, a former staff from Saranathan College of Engineering claimed that she was fired in 2017 along with over a dozen others under two days of notice. "I, however, said that I'll serve my three-month notice period or demanded the college to pay my salary for the duration, quoting my employment contract. They said that they will not give my original certificates back if I did not resign immediately. So I sent them a legal notice," she recalled adding that the college was irked by her action.
After submitting two written complaints to Anna University over a year later, she still has got no response from anyone. Consequently, she has not been able to apply for other jobs and she fears that the break in her career, might affect her credibility in the future. D Valavanan, the principal of her college said that college does not retain staff's certificates after relieving them. "We will return the certificates, as soon as the staff submit the no-due form," he said over a call with Express.
A former faculty of a private engineering college in the outskirts of Chennai alleged that the college management said that they will relieve him, only if he paid two months’ worth of his salary. When he refused to pay, the college slapped him with laboratory damages and other fines, he said. "I was asked to pay lab damages when I did not even conduct any lab classes," he said adding that the college management refused to accept his resignation, even as he tried to submit it repeatedly.
Self-financing management's argument
A senior member from the association of the self-financing college, on condition of anonymity, said that most private colleges are indirectly forced to hold back the original certificates of staff. "There are seven inspections for private colleges every year and surprise inspections on top of it. We will not get our NAAC accreditation, or cannot contest in NIRF rankings if we do not have the certificates when authorities come to check. However, ethical colleges ensure that the certificates are easily accessible if the faculty needs it for some reason," he said.
Commenting on why colleges threaten retention of certificates when teachers do not submit a resignation after being fired unethically, he explained that reduction of minimum faculty-student ratio by AICTE was behind this problem. "According to older guidelines, there had to be one faculty for every fifteen students. Now they have increased the ratio to 1:20. They have also said that colleges cannot terminate teachers because of the new guidelines. So the only option many colleges have is to ask for resignation. However, this is highly unethical and there should be a check on this," he said.
In what seems to be a disturbing trend, more than half of all seats in 473 private engineering colleges remained vacant after Tamil Nadu Engineering Admissions (TNEA) counselling in 2018. A third of engineering colleges did not even fill 50 seats. Lesser students coupled with poor faculty-pupil ratio, is adding pressure on self-financing colleges, he said.
Redressing
Vasanthavanan's close cousin said that a week before his death, told him that Vasanthavanan gave up on his fight against the college. "Maybe if I die they will return all the certificates they are holding back. Maybe all colleges will return all teachers' certificates" the cousin claimed quoting Vasanthavanan. "I did not take him seriously then," he added.
Although Vasanthavanan's suicide note states that no individual or organisation is responsible for his death, his family members point that this episode of his mental illness was triggered by the threat of legal action by the management.
The member from the association of self-financing colleges said that the government should issue a smart ID number, like Aadhaar, for teachers whose certificates are already verified. "Even principals who have worked for over a decade, are asked for certificate verification each time. Instead, if they allow verification of digilocker versions or register a verification to the smart ID, they will not only save on time, money and administrative work, but colleges won't be forced to retain the certificates anticipating inspections," he said.
KM Karthik, the president of the union argued that irrespective of the death by suicide, colleges do not have the power to hold staff's certificates in their custody. "As a union, we have three demands: Anna University should withdraw its affiliation and the government should take over the management; they should ensure that all private colleges return teachers' credential documents, the college should pay a compensation of Rs 1 Crore to the family members of the deceased," he said.
Mangat Sharma, the principal secretary to the Higher education Department said that it is illegal for colleges to withhold certificates and the management uses it as a collateral against resignation. "Any teacher who is facing a problem, must file a complaint with the Directorate of Technical Education or Anna University. If they do not receive proper response, they can approach AICTE and the Courts next.
If their allegations are found to be true, we will take severe action on the college," he said.
Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State’s health helpline 104 and Sneha’s suicide prevention helpline 044-24640050.