The four-phased panchayat election in Uttar Pradesh have been concluded and the results have also been declared. But the teachers of Uttar Pradesh, who were instrumental in the successful conclusion of the entire process, have paid a huge price for dispensing poll-related duties. Thousands of teachers and education department employees have succumbed to the coronavirus infection, which they probably contracted while working through the massive crowd-pulling event.
According to the estimates released by Uttar Pradesh Primary Teachers Association, at least 1,621 education workers of Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Department have died while at the same time 425 education workers of the Secondary Education Department lost their lives, taking the number of total deaths to 2046. However, the Minister of State for Uttar Pradesh, Basic Education Department, denied these claims, stating that only three teachers have died.
However, several facts punch holes in that claim.
Letters by the government official of various districts to the Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Council, to prevent the deaths and spread of infection in their districts, seem to support the claims made by the teachers’ body. For instance, the district officer of Deoria, in his letter to the council, mentions that a total of 30 education department staff have died. The district magistrate of Jhansi also wrote a letter to ‘Special Officer State Election Commission, Lucknow’ regarding the death of 34 education workers. Apart from this, the Basic Education Officers of many districts also wrote a letter to the respective district magistrates and informed about the death of the education workers.
Another related fact is that the state did see a tangible surge in its coronavirus cases during the period between election canvassing, polling and then results, even if we go by the official data. The dates of the panchayat elections were announced on 26 March and the polls were completed in four stages while the results were declared on 2 May.
On the days when elections were held, 15, 19, 26 and 29 April, the number of new patients of covid was 15,994, 22,339, 28,211, and 33,551 respectively. While the number of new patients was 30,857 on 2 May, the day the election results were declared.
If we look at the figures from 15 April to 2 May, it is clear that during this period, the number of COVID-19 fatalities nearly doubled even by the government’s own figures. But reports of the countless burning pyres and large number of corpses found abandoned or buried on the ghats of river Ganga, indicate that the death toll is much higher.
Aniket Kumar, a student from UP’s Siddharthnagar said, “My mother Meena Kumari and father Lallan Ram were the principals in the government schools. On 11 April, my parents were to get training for conducting various responsibilities related to the panchayat elections. When I went to drop them at the training centre, they were healthy. But in the training center, I saw that no one was abiding to the coronavirus guidelines. In the midst of the pandemic, there was an unaccounted crowd and no safety measures were followed. Two days after returning from training, my father got a fever. He still went to school the next day. When his health deteriorated, he isolated himself in the house. But on 17 April, his health worsened. Then I took my father to my sister, who is a trainee MBBS doctor at the Ambedkar Nagar Medical College. Papa’s rapid antigen test was done but it came negative so we were sent back home. But on 18 April, when his health deteriorated further, we went to Gorakhpur for the treatment, but no hospital was willing to admit him. All the hospitals wanted a positive RTPCR test report for admission. Then we gave Papa’s sample for an RTPCR test to ‘Life diagnostic’ on 23 April at the behest of his heart doctor. But the report came after 48 hours. We continued the struggle to get Papa admitted to the hospital. There are a total of 32 hospitals in Gorakhpur, but no one was willing to take them, because the number of patients was very high. We finally got a hospital bed on 24 April, but it was too late by then. He died on 25 April. On the day my papa died, in the morning,a government official of the district called and asked about him. We told him that he is in the ICU, as his health is much worse. On this, he replied that ‘if there is an FIR against him for remaining absent from election duty, then they do need the reason.” There was neither sympathy nor compassion in his voice.”
Aniket further said, “In fact, my mother’s health started deteriorating slightly from the 23rd. We got an RTPCR test for her on 25 April after which I sent her home. Her report also came positive. That is why we did not tell her about the demise of our father. We were afraid that she wouldn’t be able to survive the trauma after hearing this news. Her health deteriorated, then we admitted her to the district Covid Hospital in Siddharthnagar. We took the number of the hospital doctor, and when we would call and ask, he would say that your mother is getting healthy, she is also managing without oxygen. But when we spoke to my mother she would ask us to take her to some other hospital or to take her home because there was no arrangement here. We thought of taking her to Gorakhpur, but we could not go because of the unavailability of the ambulance. Even if we could find some ambulances, there was no oxygen in them. Because of this, on 3 May, my sister entered the covid ward somehow. She got scared after seeing the pathetic condition there. Many patients had defecated in their own beds, and no one was there to look after them. We were broken, we had money, yet we were not able to get treatment. We tried but no hospital in Gorakhpur was ready to admit her. As a last resort, I was forced go to Varanasi in the morning of 4 May to talk to a hospital there. On the way, I got a call from the hospital that my mother had passed away. We came back to the hospital and called the doctor who told us every day that my mother was getting well. He said that your mother is fine, while we were standing near her body. She never got to know that my father had passed away.”
Aniket further said that people are talking about asking for compensation, but I ask whether the government can give back my parents in compensation?
Radheraman Tripathi, vice-president of the Uttar Pradesh Primary Teachers Association, said, “For the panchayat elections, about 15,000 government employees, including education workers, were trained for poll duties in a district, where it is natural to have a crowd. After that, one day before the election, the election staff have to take the election material and go to the booth of the concerned area, during this time everyone has to be a part of the crowd. After that the training for counting of votes also takes place, where there is again a huge crowd, then there is a crowd following the election results.”
“Overall, the whole process involves working in crowded environment, now the question is that if it’s so difficult to prevent crowding, then why the education workers were made to fall prey to this election duty and infection and eventual death.”
Tripathi further said, “After the final phase of elections, we told in the Hon’ble High Court that 706 teachers died. After that, the government said that Corona’s protocol would be followedthereon. Then after the court order, counting took place where the crowd blew apart the protocol to pieces. However, by the end of the election process, more teachers got infected. This number of deaths increased to 2046. But the government is saying that only three teachers have died. Now the question is simple: Is corona a road accident that teachers will within the stipulated span of election duty?? In case of corona, an infection occurs first, only after that one falls ill and then dies. Even if the death occurs later, the main reason behind the death is the infection. That is why I have a question with the government, a soldier was on the border, where he got injured and died after coming to the hospital after four days, would he not be called a martyr? If he is a martyr then after the death from Corona, all the teachers are entitled to compensation.”
Radheraman said, “Ashwani Tiwari is a teacher in my district Siddharthnagar. His wife died last year. He had two young children and 75-year-old parents at home. He could not take care of the children, so Ashwani got married again. A few days ago his professor brother died of blood cancer. Now all the responsibility fell on Ashwani. But he died due to getting infected during the election training. Ashwini’s father also died 5 days after his death. Now tell me, if the government does not give compensation, how will this family survive?”
On behalf of the ‘Secondary Teachers Association’, MLC Suresh Kumar Tripathi, leader of the Teachers Team in the Legislative Council and Shri Dhruv Kumar Tripathi, MLC from Teachers seat from Gorakhpur, wrote a letter to the chief minister that apart from 1,021 teachers of basic education department, 425 teachers and employees of secondary education department have also died due to panchayat elections.
The large number of fatalities have caused massive outrage among the teaching staff. The teachers body decided to raise the following demands to the chief minister.
1. Financial assistance of Rs. 1 crore to the families of all the teachers/staff who died during the pandemic as has been considered reasonable by the Hon’ble High Court.
2. All the dependents of the deceased teachers who have the qualification of B.T.C./B.Ed./DL.Ed should be given exemption from the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) and appointed to the post of Assistant Teacher. Dependents who do not possess the above qualifications and are intermediate or graduate, should at least be given a clerical post in various government departments.
3. Family pension should be given to the family of all the deceased teachers under the old pension system implemented before 01 April 2005 and the entire amount deposited in the NPS account of the deceased teacher should be given to the dependent of the deceased.
4. Gratuity amount should be provided to the kin of all such deceased teachers who were 60 years of age or below, as per the wishes of their family.
5. All deceased teachers should be declared Corona warriors.
6. The teachers who got covid infected and recovered after treatment, their treatment costs must be covered.
7. Administrative proceedings against all sick teachers/ employees absent from voting / counting duties in panchayat elections should be canceled.
8. Non-academic work should not be given to the basic teachers contrary to the Right to Education Act and the teachers in the covid control room should be freed.
Firstpost’s attempts to contact N Renuka, Cheif Secretory UP Education Department for a comment did not yield results. However, Sarvendra Vikram Singh, Director, Basic Education did answer his call but refused to comment any further. “I can only say as much as the press note issued by the government.”
According to a press note released by the Basic Education Minister Satish Chandra Dwivedi, “Officials of some teacher organisations are stating the number of deaths of Basic Education Council teachers is 1,621 during the duty of Panchayat elections held in the state, which is completely wrong and baseless. On the basis of this misleading information, the leaders of the opposition parties are also doing petty politics. Based on the authorized information received by the State Election Commission from the District Magistrates of the state, only three (03) teachers have died during election duty. We express our condolences to their families. The government will pay the ex-gratia amount of Rs 30 lakh and government jobs and other dues to their dependents on priority.”
Firstpost also contacted Dwivedi, but he disconnected the call as soon as he heard that the questions were related to the death of the teachers. Further attempts to call him revealed that the minister’s phone was switched off.
This article is part of an ongoing series. You can read the rest of the series here