where knowledge is not free and will never be for the poor and the disadvantaged: Into such a world DU spins.

 https://www.independentink.in/post/the-annhilation-of-the-classroom

Independentink carried this piece I wrote.. and I have copied it to my blog post because it is something i feel  rather strongly about.The university. and the magnificent  scaffolding that had enabled its expansive architecture has been dismantled irrevocably in the last fifteen years.

Before the curriculum and the teaching posts   and the turning of temporary teaching positions into adhoc posts. became grist for the machine that was grinding down the university, the karamcharis who provided a host of servuces such as cleaning and gardening  were slowly being tapered off. Colleges were no longer empowered to employ a gardener or a cleaner or a guard who once enjoyed a full time job and a pension at the institution they worked at after retirement. All manual labour and menial jobs became contractual. While this may have saved the exchequer a lot of money and payouts , it exacerbated the hierarchical divide and made it very clear that the university did not care for the disadvantaged who did not have a graduation degree. In doing away with permanent employment for blue collar workers the chasm between white and blue collar communities has now become enormous and increasingly unbridgeable. Our gardeners and safai karamcharis are paid poorly and do not get any benefits. The institution owes them nothing, not even their jobs, and has no obligation to allow them to dream of a progressive future. So a hundred odd karamcharis at every college at Delhi University lead invisible lives with little or no future to look up to. As a university, this is the worst possible practice  that could have been chosen.. since it is our responsibility to empower and to provide opportunities  ..instead we thrust people with little access to resources into a no man's land..to the point of no return. 

I will return to this again