Delhi University approves paid Maternity Leave for ad-hoc teachers, contractual staff

Teachers have called upon the DU Administration to immediately notify this decision for prompt implementation.

 The Executive Council of the Delhi University has accepted the long-standing demand of all teachers for paid maternity leave for ad-hoc teachers and contract staff. The contractual staff have been demanding paid leave for years.

Reacting to the development, the Democratic Teachers Front said: “This is the result of our collective, determined and unrelenting struggle for many years. The denial of this human right of teachers has finally come to an end.”

The institution of paid maternity leave is a big relief to thousands of women teachers and non-teaching colleagues working in DU and its colleges. “We call upon the DU Administration to immediately notify this decision for prompt implementation. Our continuous work as part of the teachers' collective will need to continue in this regard till paid paternity leave too, is instituted for ad hoc teachers and contract staff,” stated DTF in a statement.

Claiming it as a victory the association said that this paid maternity leave is an important part of their struggle to preserve and develop public higher education as a democratic and inclusive space within which the teaching-learning process can develop.

DTF further stated: “As part of this process of struggle, the teachers' movement will continue to firmly demand Parliament Act/UGC Regulation for Absorption of ad hoc and temporary teachers as per correct roster. Not only will this endure professional and academic growth of all colleagues, the consequent process of democratisation that it will unleash will be a bulwark against all efforts under the rubric of NEP to undermine public higher education.”

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