West Bengal Higher Education department notification sparks controversy

A notification issued by the Higher Education Department of the West Bengal Government for recruitment in state aided universities and government aided colleges has sparked controversy by asking the applicants to provide information about whether they were residents of Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal any other country.

The schedule I of the verification roll of the notification states asks the applicants for teaching and non teaching jobs to state if he or she is “originally a resident of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal or any other country, the address in that dominion of migration to Indian Union.” A copy of the notification is with DH.

The development comes at time when the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has vowed to stop the implementation of the CAA, NRC and NPR in West Bengal.

The notification dated February 24, 2020 has sparked outrage in the teaching community by asking male candidates to provide their “ girth of chest” and female candidates to provide “ function of ovaries and uterus (if they are normal)” in its schedule II.

“The details to be filled for medical verification are equally insulting,” he added.

The All Bengal Teachers’ Association (ABUTA) chapter at Jadavpur University demanded immediate withdrawal of the notification and termed it as “offensive.”

“We have not introduced anything new in the notification. The law is an old one which was also there during the Left Front government. Then it was applied by the Public Service Commission with regard to recruitment in government schools and colleges,” said Education Minister Partha Chatterjee.

Adding that the state government may consider changing the provision if teachers feel that they are objectionable he said that the state government passed a law in 2017 according to which these provisions are also supposed to applicable to recruitment in state aided colleges and universities.

“If someone thinks that these provisions are offensive for teachers then can approach us for discussion then we can consider changing them,” said Chatterjee.

The notification drew strong reaction from several organizations of college and university professors.

“ Further what is the justification for asking candidates if they were residents of ‘Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal or any other country? This echoes the motives behind the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 which casts doubts on the status of all citizens of India,” said Partha Pratim Roy, the general secretary of the Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association.