Part-Time Lecturers in West Bengal, India

A Short Note on Part Time Lecturers in West Bengal, India.

I do not know why I am scribbling about the part-time lecturers in West Bengal, all of a sudden. Why should people like to know about this melancholy band of neo-proletariats? But, what if somebody does? If not today, may be, in some distant future someone might come across, however inadvertently, this small article of mine. Then perhaps, much like the cave-paintings made by some whimsical savage, this writing will become an important piece of social document!
This is obvious that the part-time lecturers, referred to as ‘part-timers’ (for contempt as well as convenience), are those fellows who teach in a college ‘some’ days in a week, meaning, they do not have to work for ‘the entire duty hours’ or on ‘all weekdays’. But, whatever is ‘obvious’ is not always ‘true’. Part-timers is West Bengal often work five days a week and take as many classes as the so-called ‘full-timers’. But see the discrepancy in the pay scale. While the ‘full-timers’ get nearly 20000 bucks a month, the part-timers are paid less than 4000 for the same work and with the same qualification! Though the U.G.C. recommends that all part-time lecturers should be given 4000 rupees for only ‘six’ classes a week, the colleges compel them to take 10-12 classes a week, and yet, refuse to pay as much. In addition to that there is outright show of disrespect from the full-time teachers to the part-time colleagues. Even the clerks or peons look down at these unfortunate young men—an unorganised band of cheap labourers. Only the students do not discriminate between teachers. They only classify teachers as the good/useful ones and bad/useless ones. They would treat a teacher scornfully, even if he/she were a full-time one, if he/she failed to command their respect with skill, knowledge and proper guidance.
Moreover, there is a feeling of insecurity. Any part-timer may lose his/her job, if he/she displeases the college authority. Some colleges even cut down the scanty pay of part-timers in ‘slack sessions’ when there are fewer classes. So, the Marxist system of thought is queerly applicable to explain such exploitation of these educated young men in a ‘communist’ state. The government is a capitalist here, education being its business and the colleges being the ‘means of material production’. The part-time lecturers are the proletariat who do not own these means and, therefore, are exploited mercilessly for the profiteering motive of the government. I wonder how shameless people can be. How can people draw a whopping 20,000 as salary and offer 2000 or 3500 rupees to fellow workers?