The guest lecturers of the Non-Collegiate Women's Education Board (NCWEB) which comes under the purview of the University of Delhi alleged that they have not received their payment of around Rs 1.75 lakh for over a year. They said that their applications to the board or the university have not been taken up and even after a year they are being asked to wait some more. But that's not the only problem. Most of the guest lecturers here are either pursuing their PhD or have just received their degrees and are looking for a job at Delhi University. Those dreams, they say, will probably remain unfulfilled.
The teachers have not been paid for two semesters, one of which was conducted in two phases. "Our payments are pending from the entire semester that started in January 2020 and ended that May — part of which was online. The next semester had only second and third-year students and the semester started in October 2020 and went on till December. The classes for the first-year students started in December and went on till March 2021," said Raj Kaithwar, who is a guest faculty and teaches at the Miranda House centre of NCWEB. The centres are spread across 26 colleges of Delhi University.
Even though the NCWEB is funded by the UGC, the university is the one making the payments, said Raj. "We are paid at the end of every semester. Even now, when they are paying for parts of the tenure, the rate for each lecture delivered was not updated from the previous Rs 1000 to Rs 1500. The University authorities work at a snail's pace. They have no regard whatsoever for the concerns of the guest faculties," he said. "They say the COVID-19 pandemic was raging so they could not work the last time. What about the period from September to January when everything had almost opened up? Why was nothing done?" he asked.
Anupam Kumar was also teaching as a guest faculty at the NCWEB and unlike Raj, he isn't a native of Delhi. Anupam sad that he had to shift base to his state, Jharkhand and is now applying for jobs at Ranchi University. "My Delhi dream is over. I was teaching at the NCWEB and also looking for opportunities in Delhi. That will never be fulfilled. Its not just the financial issue though. If we have teaching experience, it always helps when applying for higher posts. But if there is no payment, it would be hard for people like me to continue," he added. Anupam is now preparing for UPSC along with applying for jobs in Jharkhand. "Even though there have been many petitions which went in vain, I was never a part of them because I thought it would be detrimental. But now we have to speak up," he said.
