Will continue protest until demands are met: Secondary Grade Teachers

CHENNAI: The members of Secondary Grade Seniority Teacher's Association (SSTA) are more likely to continue the hunger strike, demanding equal pay for equal work, despite nearly 1600 Secondary Grade Teachers (SGTs) being detained by Chennai city police in a Thursday morning swoop down.

The SSTA has said the members will continue protest on Friday 10.30 am at DPI entrance.

Strongly urging the DMK government to address their demands, the strike began on September 28 at DPI campus, entering day nine on Thursday. However, the local police at around 5:30 am forcefully evicted the teachers from the venue and took them to different places to detain them till late evening.

For the past 14 years, nearly 20,000 SGTs have been requesting both the AIADMK and DMK governments to address the pay disparity faced by teachers appointed after June 2009 of Rs 3,170 for the same amount of work than those appointed on or before May 31, 2009.

The teachers also claim that in December last year, these teachers were severely affected by the seventh pay commission as the pay gap further widened.

As the DMK government promised to fulfil the SGTs demand on pay disparity during the assembly election in 2021, the teachers say that they were hopeful that the party will address their issues once it came to power.

Speaking on this, J Robert, general secretary SSTA said, "We were hopeful that our demands will be addressed by the DMK government. But, we did not expect this treatment from the government on world teachers' day."

"Despite detaining us, we will continue the protest in all manner possible to get our issues resolved, "Robert added.

Meanwhile, the protestors detained at six different community halls in the city were let off on late Thursday evening. As per police sources, 1,592 protestors were detained, including 592 women and 30 children.

Speaking about detaining children from the protest site, one of the protestors noted, "We highly condemn the police detaining children who merely accompanied their parents who were protesting. But, the police showed no mercy and sensitivity in handling children. Is this the safe haven for children CM Stalin talks about?"

Incidentally, teachers from across the State began protesting condemning the teachers' arrest.

Meanwhile, members of part-time teachers' association and candidates of Teachers Recruitment Test (TET) who staged protests for different reasons withdrew their protest on Thursday.