Bengaluru: Deployment of 1 lakh teachers for census sparks backlash
Bengaluru: The state government’s decision to deploy over one lakh government school teachers for the 2027 population census has drawn strong criticism from the teaching community over increased workload.
Teachers from primary, higher primary and high schools will be involved in census enumeration starting April 16, while the self-evaluation process is already under way from April 1 to 15, The New Indian Express reported.
However, teachers have already expressed displeasure over the census duty assigned to them. They have said that there is no vacations or holidays for them due to extra workload apart from academic work assigned to them by the Department of School Education and Literacy.
After evaluating exam papers, they have to rush door-to-door collecting data on the total number of family members.
A high school teacher from Chikkaballapur government high school said, “I am on SSLC exam duty and April 2 will be the last exam. From April 7 to 12, we need to finish the evaluation of answer papers of exam-1. From April 16, we need to rush to complete the population census.
With the harsh summer, we need to do this job from 6.30am to 11.30am and resume again from 4.30pm to 8.30pm. Again, we have to resume exam duty for SSLC exam-1 from the first week of May 2026. At least they exempt SSLC exam evaluators like us. It is difficult to manage it throughout the year.”
Chandrashekar Nuggali, president, Karnataka State Primary School Teachers Association (KPSTA), said they have written to the Revenue Department to provide exemptions for teachers above 50 years of age due to health concerns and rising temperatures, but the proposal was rejected.
“This decision was taken after school teachers died on duty during the SIR process in other states. However, the Revenue Department has rejected our request. We had also requested the School Education Department to exempt teachers on SSLC exam duty from the population census job, but even that has been rejected. We have tried to speak to different ministers but nothing has worked in favour of teachers so far.”
Responding to the concerns, School Education and Literacy Minister Madhu Bangarappa said the issue was discussed in the Assembly, acknowledging that it adds to teachers’ workload. “While we understand the problem, we cannot involve or outsource agencies for these kinds of important tasks requiring data collection. So we have to deploy teachers on census enumeration duty,” he said.
When asked if there is a discussion to bring a new Act to not involve teachers in any other jobs except academics, he said, “For now, there are no such talks, and it is difficult to bring one.”
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Three arrested for killing Buddhist woman monk in Himachal
Shimla (PTI): Three people have been arrested for allegedly murdering a Buddhist woman monk in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh nearly a month ago, police said on Friday.
The accused -- Gagan Sharma (23), Vishal (23) and Gaurav Sharma (20), all residents of Mandi -- were arrested on Thursday night, police said.
According to police, the 78-year-old Buddhist woman monk, Orje Shoki, was found murdered in a cave near Sarkidhar village, following which a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was constituted to nab the accused.
Mandi Superintendent of Police (SP) Vinod Kumar said that during the investigation, more than 50 suspects were questioned and DNA samples of several suspects were also collected.
After a detailed investigation, the accused were arrested from different locations on Thursday night, he said.
Kumar said all the accused are drug addicts and they committed the crime with the intention of looting the victim, so that they could buy drugs.
Efforts are on to nab two more accused wanted in the case. They will be put behind bars soon, the SP said.
