New Delhi: When a 30-year-old guest teacher in Delhi declined to participate in census enumeration work, she did not expect her job to come under threat. She has been working at a government school near Delhi Gate since 2021, earning Rs 1,403 per day. When the request first came, she said no twice.
“We were asked for our willingness, and I declined both times. I even gave a proper reason in a formal letter about my father’s condition,” she said.
Her father had fallen severely ill in her hometown, Jaipur, where she had planned to spend the summer break caring for him.
“But our reasons were not considered. Now they are threatening us.”
Instead of going home, the guest teacher is now preparing to go door-to-door in the peak of Delhi’s May heat.
“This is more than a job — this is about our self-respect,” she said.
Low compensation, lack of clarity
The district magistrate (DM) of Old Delhi has asked the Directorate of Education to terminate the services of 142 guest teachers for allegedly refusing to perform their duties as census enumerators, calling their actions “gross negligence and indiscipline.”
In a letter to Director of Education Veditha Reddy dated 24 April, DM G Sudhakar flagged the “difficulties faced due to disobedience and unwillingness” of guest teachers to take up the assignment.
“Such an act of omission on their part tantamounts gross negligence and dereliction duty and is detrimental to the public interest,” the letter stated, recommending that their services be discontinued with immediate effect. It warned that tolerating such “indiscipline” could affect other staff engaged in census work.
The list attached to the letter names 142 teachers. For six, “medical condition” was cited as the reason for refusal; for the rest, no reasons were recorded.
Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood has defended the move, stating that the census is a matter of national importance and requires collective participation.
But teachers and unions describe the situation very differently.
“Even those who had earlier said no are now being compelled to agree out of fear,” the guest teacher quoted above said. “This is bullying. We are being pressured by the administration, by our principal, and now by the DM and the Directorate of Education.”
She said the issue was not just the work, but the terms under which it was being assigned.
“We were okay with doing the job if we were compensated on a daily basis like we normally are,” she said. “But for the entire process, spread across two phases, we will get only Rs 25,000.”
According to her, for the first houselisting phase, expected to run from 16 May to 15 June in MCD areas, teachers will receive around Rs 9,000, with the remaining amount paid only after the second phase next year.
“There is no clarity on travel costs either. How are we supposed to manage in this heat?” she asked.
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‘A nightmare’
Ajay Veer Yadav, general secretary of the Government Schools Teachers’ Association (GSTA), said guest teachers were initially asked whether they were willing to participate in the enumeration.
“When teachers declined, they were told it was mandatory,” he said. “Many gave valid reasons — some had medical issues, others pointed out that their contracts end on 8 May. After that, they won’t even be on payroll.”
He added that the compensation being offered does not match the scale or conditions of the work. Guest teachers, already employed on temporary contracts with limited job security, say the directive has intensified existing anxieties.
“It has been a nightmare for our mental health,” the teacher said. “I need this job, but the way they are manipulating us, it’s taking a toll.”
She also pointed to disparities between guest and permanent staff. “For permanent teachers, census duty is compulsory, but they get benefits — like special leave and additional remuneration,” she said. “We don’t get any of that.”
Teachers like her now feel that their career hangs in the balance, with no clarity whether their contract will be renewed in July like it is every year.
In a letter to Sood, dated 27 April, the GSTA argued that the refusal was not an act of indiscipline, but a response to systemic gaps.
“The decision of not joining duty was not deliberate disobedience,” the letter stated. “It was a consequence of compelling circumstances and systemic shortcomings.”
The union flagged inadequate remuneration and the precarious nature of guest teachers’ employment, warning that punitive action would further destabilise an already vulnerable workforce.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)