Bareilly,

28 May (HS): Many government teachers say that school staff in Uttar Pradesh's

Bareilly district are now being asked to collect straw for stray cattle while

also performing census duties. According to the Basic Education Department,

every elementary school in the district has been instructed to prepare around

46 kg of straw for cow shelters. Teachers are scheduled to collect

approximately 100 quintals of feed across many blocks. The directive, issued by

Block Education Officers citing orders from the district administration, states

that the donation is necessary and that noncompliance may result in

departmental action. The decision has rekindled an old argument in Uttar

Pradesh: where does a teacher's work end?

Non-academic

responsibilities for government school teachers in the state are common,

ranging from election duty and surveys to vaccination programs, ration

verification, and now census labor. The recent instruction, however, has struck

many as notably indicative of how the state's broad stray cattle control system

is increasingly reliant on local administrative mobilization.

Stray

cattle have been a major political and governance concern in Uttar Pradesh for

many years, particularly after crackdowns on illicit slaughterhouses and

stricter livestock protection laws resulted in a substantial increase in

abandoned bovines throughout rural areas. Since then, the Yogi Adityanath

administration has made significant investments in gaushalas and cattle

shelters through schemes like the Kanha Pashu Ashray Yojana and other state-run

cow protection efforts.

Bareilly

has long been at the centre of these efforts. In 2018, the city opened what was

touted as Uttar Pradesh's first major refuge for stray cattle. But with the

growth of shelters comes a reoccurring issue: fodder. District administrations

in Uttar Pradesh have regularly asked local populations, village chiefs, and

even teachers to assist feed stray animals confined in government shelters. In

2022, a similar dispute arose in Sant Kabir Nagar when teachers were required

to provide at least one quintal of feed for cows housed in shelter.

In

Bareilly's recent example, copies of the instructions swiftly circulated on

social media, eliciting severe condemnation from teacher unions and educators

who were already grumbling about increasing non-teaching duties. Some teachers

responded with scathing sarcasm. Tomorrow, they may order us to gather cow poo,

bathe calves, or clean sewers, according to one teacher leader. Others

questioned why instructors charged with enhancing learning results were

suddenly expected to actively engage in fodder gathering activities.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi