Shanthamma from Davangere was employed by an NGO as a ‘resource teacher’ under the Integrated Education for Disabled (IED) Scheme in 2004. Since then her salary has been credited to her bank account. But she is yet to see her bank passbook.
She is not aware how much money is credited to her account as salary by the NGO which has appointed her. She says only a part of her salary is being paid to her, though entire salary is getting credited to her account. Shanthamma is not the only one to be cheated. Many resource teachers’ salaries are drawn by someone else, allege teachers.
The IED scheme, which is Union government sponsored, aims at teaching physically or mentally challenged children. If a student is unable to go to school, then the teachers have to go to the disabled student’s house and teach him there. Since the launch of the scheme in 1998, Karnataka chose to pass on the responsibility of implementing the scheme to NGOs, for reasons better known to planners.
During 2004-05, total budget under this scheme was Rs 10.71 crore, of which Rs 9.6 crore went straight to the accounts of NGOs. In 2005-06, the NGOs were sanctioned nearly Rs 11 crore. They are paid to purchase books, stationery, uniform etc besides giving salary to the special teachers.
Meagre sum
Shanthamma claims that she is getting a meagre Rs 1,500 as against Rs 6,174, which is deposited every month into her account by the NGO and then withdrawn through self-cheques by the bearer. She alleged that these bearers are either the NGOs or their employees. Another teacher, who has been allegedly duped, is Sangamesh from Bangalore rural, who claims he has not been getting salary for the last 13 months. He continues to work hoping he would get huge arrears one day.
Now the teachers are forced to stage a protest in Bangalore to draw the attention of the policy makers to the lacunae in the system. They want the Government free the scheme and the resource teachers from NGOs.
Several women have come from distant parts of the State with their infants and are staging a dharna since Monday at Bannappa Park. They have submitted a memorandum to the directorate of Urdu and Minority Language Schools, the nodal agency for implementing the scheme.
According to Resource Teachers’ Association Somappa a teacher should get Rs 8,890 per month but hardly any teacher is getting the full amount. “The NGOs have kept passbooks, cheque books and ATM cards with them. They draw our salary. We don’t get more than Rs 1,500 to 2,000”, he alleged. They pointed out that it is not mandatory for the Government to hand over the scheme to NGOs.
VESTED INTERESTS
Mr A A Cutinho, Director of Urdu and Minority Language Schools admits that there are some ‘clever NGOs with vested interests’.
“We know that there are bogus teachers. Many (resource teachers) have not seen their passbook. They (NGOs) open the account, take away passbooks, cheque books and keep the resignation letters of the teachers with them at the time of joining,” said Mr Cutinho.
He said his department could not do much because the teachers are not government employees. They are all appointed by the NGOs. Also, the scheme is under the purview of the Zilla Panchayats and the directorate is not monitoring it.
Mr Cutinho informed that three NGOs were disqualified last year for their alleged malpractice.
He gave their names as Siddhartha Women Welfare Society- Bagepalli in Kolar district; Citizen’s NGO, Siddaghatta; and Bhagyashree Integrated Rural Development Women and Children Welfare Association of Kanakapura.