Even as they struggle for permanent positions in the faculty, ad-hoc and contractual lecturers at Delhi University have some good news coming their way in the form of paid maternity leave. The decision was made by the varsity's Executive Council after a panel was constituted to understand whether paid maternity leaves were required for the ad-hoc and contractual staff.
According to a report in The Times of India, the report submitted by the committee recognised that availing maternity leave was a basic and vital necessity for the physical and emotional wellbeing of the mother and the child. The leave was thus made available to ad-hoc or contractual lecturers for a maximum period of 26 weeks, with less than two surviving children.
Abha Dev Habib, Secretary of the Democratic Teachers Front welcomed the move as a relief to the "thousands of women teachers working at colleges in DU", and credited the move to the work put in by the teachers. She was also quoted by TOI saying the push for absorption of these temporary teachers into the permanent faculties in the varsity will continue.
