A controversy broke out in Uttar Pradesh’s Siddharthnagar district on Monday after women school teachers were ordered to help brides get decked up for an official mass wedding programme.
The order was revoked a few hours later and a probe was proposed against the Block Education Officer who passed it after the issue led to much outrage.
Block Education Officer of Naugarh in Siddharthnagar Dhruv Prasad on Monday issued an order assigning 20 women teachers to help brides get ready for the programme under the Chief Minister’s Mass Wedding scheme to be conducted on Tuesday. The one-page order lists the names of the 20 teachers and asks them to reach the venue on January 28 by 9 a.m.
Suryakant Tripathi, Basic Education Officer of the district, said the order was “cancelled with immediate effect” when it came to his notice. “This is wrong. Duty cannot be assigned in such a manner,” Mr. Tripathi told The Hindu.
Mr. Tripathi said it was normal to ask one or two teachers to offer “assistance” at social functions for a couple of hours but keeping them engaged for the entire day would hamper the learning process.
“[If they are assigned the duty] they won’t go to school from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The school and the learning will get affected. If any social event is held here, they can send one teacher from a nearby school for a few hours to add to the participation as well as assist them,” said Mr. Tripathi.
“Consider the said order ineffective,” said Mr. Tripathi in his revocation order.
Siddharthnagar is located in Purvanchal along the Indo-Nepal border.
