They face unpaid wages and neglect. Collective action is needed to restore their dignity and secure the future of our children.
In Kashmir, the very people entrusted with shaping the minds of our children—the teachers—are living lives of quiet struggle and humiliation. Here, the dream of becoming a (private) teacher has turned into a nightmare for many. Our educated youth, who have spent years burning the midnight oil, are offered salaries of Rs 7,000 or Rs 8,000—a sum barely enough to survive, let alone to dream. They enter classrooms with smiles, but behind those smiles are rent notices, unpaid bills, and the fear of tomorrow.
What is most painful? The silence. From the MLA to the Governor, from the policymakers to the parents—everyone knows, yet no one speaks. Why? Because personal comfort has become more important than collective responsibility.
Our education system is bleeding. Private school owners are no longer driven by the noble mission of spreading knowledge—they are business entrepreneurs chasing profits. Rules are broken with impunity. Teachers are denied basic rights: no proper leave, no winter salary, no job security. Some are even threatened for speaking up. In government schools, contractual teachers earn Rs 9,000, still without winter pay or a guarantee. This is not just underpayment—it is exploitation wearing a respectable mask.
A teacher in Kashmir today is a modern-day slave—bound not by chains, but by financial desperation. They endure everything silently because they love their students and fear that resistance may cost them the little they have. Even parents, though aware, remain silent—perhaps afraid that raising their voice might disturb their children’s studies. But what they forget is that when teachers suffer, the education their children receive suffers too.
A society that lets its teachers starve kills its own future. A nation that allows the hands that hold the chalk to tremble with worry is building its own destruction.
It is time for a change. Teachers must unite under a strong, independent Private School Teachers’ Association to demand fair wages, regulated recruitment, and strict enforcement of eligibility and salary standards. This is not charity—it is justice.
The pen is mightier than the sword, they say. But in Kashmir, the pen is trembling. And unless we stand with our teachers today, tomorrow it may fall from their hands—and with it, the hopes of an entire generation.
Rayees Yaseen
ra***********@***il.com