Mumbai: Teachers demand vaccine priority

A file picture shows school teachers of BMC-run schools getting themselves checked for COVID-19 at Bhoiwada Municipal School

About 25,000 teachers on Covid-19 duty have complained of being neglected, as they are not being considered as frontline workers. Even though a large number of them are posted at isolation centres, and almost all are on rotation duty to serve in Covid-19 war rooms, none of them are on the priority list to be vaccinated.

As the second wave has hit the state severely, teachers from both government and civic schools have been appointed on Covid-19 duty time and again.

"We have been part of Covid-19 duty since the beginning, especially when the government decided to convert school premises into isolation centers for Covid-19 patients. Teachers of such schools were put on duty to manage the centre on rotation," shared a teacher requesting anonymity. Another teacher said, "Many of us are stepping out of house every day to serve in war rooms, where we provide help to Covid-19 patients over the phone."

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Shivnath Darade from the Maharashtra Rajya Shikshak Parishad, a teachers' body, which has written to the state government to include teachers as frontline workers, said, "Now, even as summer vacations have been declared in many schools, especially civic body-run schools, teachers have been asked to not leave the city as they can be called for Covid duty anytime. This clearly means that around 25,000 teachers should be considered as frontline workers." The union has also raised a demand for compensation for the families of those who have died on duty. As per information provided by the union, a total of 212 teachers have died due to Covid-19, after being infected while on the job.