Patna: A teacher was suspended by the Bihar government after his efforts to sell empty mid-day meal gunny sacks – which the government had asked schools to do – went viral on social media.
The contractual primary school teacher was suspended for “tarnishing the image of the Bihar government” although he was following written orders issued by the state government’s education department.
Mohammad Tamizuddin, a resident of Barua village in Kadwa block under Katihar district, had been selling empty gunny sacks with a placard around his neck at a small market a few kilometres away from his village on August 6.
The placard read: “I am a teacher of a government school in Bihar. I am selling empty sacks on government orders.”
Tamizuddin. Photo: By arrangement.
“I had put the placard around my neck so that people would know that we are selling empty sacks on the orders of the government. If I didn’t put up a placard, people would think that I had stolen it from school,” the 46-year-old told The Wire.
Tamizuddin said his intentions were twofold. “I wanted to sell the sacks and also show common people the plight of teachers,” he said.
In the suspension order, the Panchayat Secretary has written, “Md. Tamizuddin has not complied with the departmental order. When he was asked to submit the report (about the sale of gunny sacks), he made a video of himself and posted it on social media. In the video, he is carrying a bundle of empty sacks on his head and raising a slogan of bora le lo, bora (‘buy gunny bags’) at a public place.”
“This conduct of Tamizuddin is contrary to the teacher’s code of conduct and it indicates the loss of government revenue and financial irregularities. Tamizuddin’s act has tarnished the image of the district administration and the government,” the order of August 8, Sunday, says.
A departmental enquiry has also been initiated against him.
He has now been deputed to the office of block education officer. According to the order, he will get half of his salary for the month of August.
On July 22 this year, the director of mid-day meal scheme (Bihar) had issued a letter to the all district programme officers, asking them to ensure that empty sacks of food grains – mainly rice bags – for the financial years of 2014-2015 and 2015-2016 is sold at the rate of Rs 10 per sack.
All government primary schools are given rice in gunny bags. Teachers have to buy the other ingredients from local shops.
The order further said, “All the money earned by selling gunny bags [is] to be deposited in a mid-day meal account.”
Earlier, on June 8, 2016 and again on December 26, 2026, a similar order was given.
Indian school children eat their free midday meal at a primary school. Photo: Adnan Abidi/Reuters/Files
Government data says, in the financial year 2014-2015, there were around 5,588,735 empty sacks in government schools across the state, which would fetch the government Rs 55,887,358 if sold at the rate of Rs 10 per sack.
According to a news article published in the Hindustan newspaper in early August, if a headmaster does not deposit the amount earned from selling empty sacks to the account of the government a case of embezzlement can be registered against her.
The mid-day meal programme was started in 1995 by the Narasimha Rao government. Under this scheme children from class one to eight get free lunch on working days in all government schools.
Also read: Centre’s Financial Crunch to Delay Provision of Breakfast Under Midday Meal Scheme
Tamizuddin says, “The order to sell the sack is in itself disrespectful for teachers. We were appointed to teach children, but the government started getting us to do strange things. When the open defecation free campaign was going on, we teachers were asked to photograph people who used to defecate in the open in the morning and evening.”
“Did that not insult the government?”
Tamizuddin had to sell around 15 to 20 sacks, but they were torn. Seeing the placard in his neck and in hands, a crowd had gathered. He requested the crowd to buy the sacks, but no one bought them.
Some people made a video and published it on social media, he said. “The video was made by some strangers. I had no idea that the video was put on social media. Later, a few media persons called me saying that my video is viral on social media,” he said.
“On Sunday, I came to know that I was suspended and departmental action has been initiated against me,” he added.
According to the education department, there are 204,857 empty sacks of mid-day meals lying with government schools of Katihar since the financial year 2014-2015, which will fetch the government Rs 2,048,570.
Tamizuddin is a teacher in Kantadih primary school. About 300 students study in the school and 6-7 gunny sacks are used in a month. It is a difficult task for teachers to keep these bags safe.
Tamizuddin said, “Children of EBC (Extreme Backward Class), Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes study in my school. These people are poor. The school has no benches and tables so they sit on empty gunny sacks. They sometimes carry them back to their houses. We cannot take these bags away from them. In the year 2016, there was a severe flood in Katihar as well. At that time 4-5 feet of water had entered my school, so many sacks got spoiled.”
“Last year my school was made a quarantine centre, so the remaining sacks were taken away by the people who were quarantined. I could collect 15-20 sacks, but those too were torn. I kept asking people to buy them for a long time, but the sacks were torn, so no one bought them,” he said.
Also read: Reimagining a Post-COVID School for India
Teachers demand cancellation of order
The order to deposit money in the government’s account after selling empty sacks is for all the schools in the state. However, teachers from many schools The Wire spoke to said that there was no way of collecting and storing sacks in schools.
Rajesh Sinha, 46, is a teacher in a primary school in Katihar’s Falka block. He told The Wire, “We keep sacks in the store room, where they have either been gnawed by at rats or occasionally brought out by children to sit on. In such a situation, either we will have to pay the sack money from our salary or we will have to face action like suspension or embezzlement, or our salary will be withheld.”
Representative image of a school in Bihar. Photo: Flickr/ HappyHorizons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Sinha extended support to Tamizuddin, “He has not done anything wrong. He was just following the government order to sell the sacks. He didn’t have any other option.”
Sinha said the government should have a mechanism of collecting the sacks instead of asking schools to sell them.
Md Ismail, a primary school teacher from Araria, said that he was at a loss to understand how a teacher who was doing exactly what the government had asked him to do could be tarnishing the image of the government.
“It is extremely disrespectful to the teachers. We teachers are ready to obey the orders of the government, but the work we are assigned should be respectful,” said Ismail.
Also read: FIR Against Journalist Who Reported on Rotis With Salt Being Served as Mid-Day Meal
Ismail says his school has no inventory of empty sacks for mid-day meals either. He said, “The action against Tamizuddin has scared everyone. If there is pressure from the government, then we will give money from our pocket.”
Teachers’ body Prarambhik Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh has meanwhile demanded that the order be withdrawn.
“The order is an insult to the teachers. We demand it be withdrawn immediately. We will soon write a letter to the state government. We also demand that Md. Tamizuddin be reinstated as he did nothing wrong. He was just following the government order,” said Rakesh Bharti, president of Prarambhik Madhyamik Shikshak Sangh.
The Wire has reached out to the state’s education department for comment. This article will be updated as and when the department responds.
2.60 lakh teachers did not get salary for two months
As many as 3,25,000 teachers are employed at primary schools of the state, out of whom about 65,000 teachers are paid from the exchequer of Bihar government and the remaining 2,60,000 teachers are paid from funds released by Union government because they were appointed under the Centre’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).
Also read: Modi Govt’s Inability to Send Children Back to School Will Affect India’s Future
These 2,60,000 teachers have not yet got salaries for June and July.
The SSA was started in 2001 to universalise primary education. The goal of this campaign was to educate all the children in the age group of 6 to 14 years by the year 2010. This target was later pushed for an indefinite period. In the year 2018, the Modi government started the National Education Mission and merged the SSA. Apart from SSA, Saakshar Bharat and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan have also been included in this mission.
Tamizuddin and Rajesh Sinha both said that due to non-payment of salaries for two months, they have had to take loans to support their families.
Tamizuddin has two children and a wife. “The family runs on my income. So far, I have taken a loan of Rs 32,000,” he said.
