Ghoom Jorbunglow college staffs and students on relay hunger strike demanding it's recognition by the West Bengal State government.

- Sumendra Tamang

 

The teaching staffs and non teaching staffs ( 28+ 9) of Ghoom Jorbunglow college penned down their work from 29th April, 2022 and later on 6th of May started a relay hunger strike demanding state aided  recognition of the said college. This college was founded under the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Counsil in 2004 and was later transferred to Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. Both of these autonomous boards have seriously failed to run this college in a transparent and democratic manner.  Ghoom Jorbunglow college may be affiliated to North Bengal University but the state of its  administration is extremely hazy and ill managed. When some of the teaching staff questioned about the nature of their employment which right now is contractual in nature, they were told to think of this college and this job as a stepping stone or apprenticeship/ internship for their future ( real) employment or in simple langauge 'experience gaining opportunity'. No proper means of recruitment and permanent nature of employment has been established in this college yet. Their payscale is extremely low for a public aided college. It's  infrastructure and  administration needs to be  taken care by the government as most of the students are from rural tea gardens and far away villages of Darjeeling. With so many students and a few remaining government aided college, this college needs to be run properly and transperantly so that students from marginalized backgrounds of Darjeeling can avail and afford public education. Afterall, education must be  the most important and crucial right of every citizen irrespective of their class, caste, religion, gender, sex etc.

The movement has taken a pivotal turn since the morning of 14th May 2022, after the students of the Ghoom Jorbunglow College joined their teachers in a parallel relay hunger strike at the college playground. So right now teachers under the non political banner of Ghoom Jorbunglow College staff welfare organization and the students of the said college are staging a protest relay hunger strike together demanding the immediate state aided recognition of Ghoom Jorbunglow College.

Looking at the volatile situation of Darjeeling where GTA election issue is on the heat, this movement of Ghoom Jorbunglow college teaching staffs,  non staffs and students will act as a litmus test for a definite political realisation on peoples part and more intricately on the part of political parties of Darjeeling in particular and West Bengal in general. The realisation being education to be understood as a basic human right and not as a form of any pre-attained privilege and  the need to fight and raise voice against all forms of corruption, nepotism, privatisation and political appropriation of education system happening around our very own eyes. This movement is an indicator that institutional resistance is slowly ripening and more centrality and importance is being pressed upon the  nature of employment and the terms of employment for any sort of labour and services. This college and it's teachers have been facing this problem since it's very inception. They are fed up of being sandwiched between the institutional inefficiency of autonomous boards such as DGHC and GTA and the indifferent attitude of West Bengal government. Their call of protest being #Shiksha_sadak_ma which translates to ' Knowledge on the Streets.'

It's time that the issue of  education becomes a central social and  political agenda for the people of Darjeeling and this country as the drop out rate of students especially from marginalized sections of our society has been constantly dropping in quantity and quality with rampant cuts in public funding and privatisation of education. In order to change our future we must act now  to strengthen the education system or else it will be too late and the damages will be extremely regressive and lethal for generations to come.