The sudden death of a school teacher who had been assigned election-related responsibilities has aroused concerns and revived discussions about the workload of teachers performing additional government duties. Shamanta Kumari M G, a school teacher who had been working as a Booth Level Officer (BLO) for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, died of a cardiac arrest and the rest of the education community is shocked.
Shamanta Kumari was working as part of the Special Intensive Revision process, which is done to update and verify electoral rolls. Booth Level Officers play a role in ensuring voter lists are correct, in terms of field verification, registration, voter information (if necessary), and door-to-door verification. Teachers take on this job in addition to their normal classroom work; particularly in elections.
The teacher’s untimely death has been very sad to her colleagues and to the local education community. While no official diagnosis for her cardiac arrest has been made, her death has led teachers and workers to express concern about the workload on teachers, who are also expected to teach in the classroom and manage the rest of the school system.
Many of their colleagues then started talking about the physical and mental strain of election work, especially when voter verification was quite intensive. Booth Level Officers are required to do extensive field tours, record extensive documentation and verify voter information, and work on these tasks and still have school duties, have been quoted as saying. This additional work is still a part of the democratic process and educators say that it is difficult to balance those with what we learn.
The Special Intensive Revision exercise is central to free and fair elections. Accurate electoral rolls allow eligible citizens to vote and avoid duplications in voter databases, and so are needed. Booth Level Officers are the primary link between election authorities and local residents; so they are essential for revision exercises.
The incident has reopened a larger debate about the role of teachers in government work in non-academic work. Teachers in several states are frequently called on to carry out elections, census work, disaster relief work, surveys and other administrative tasks. While they are part of public administration, some education experts have said such tasks add to the classroom time we lose and professional pressure.
Teacher associations have long advocated for reducing non-teaching responsibilities of teachers and for adequate support mechanisms when such tasks arise. They argue that teachers should concentrate on educational work and administrative work could be carried out by professional staff when they could. Other suggestions are better logistics support, flexible scheduling, health surveillance and more people to support large-scale government exercises to reduce the demand on those who deal with those responsibilities.
Health professionals also stress the need to recognise the stress in the workplace and ensure that those working in a demanding job have enough time to rest, keep a regular check-up and receive medical attention when needed.
Cardiac problems can come from any number of health conditions; and a person’s death should be diagnosed by medical professionals. So it would not be fair to attribute the teacher’s cardiac arrest to the work she is doing without any official findings.
The incident has raised concerns about balancing administrative efficiency with employee welfare. Public servants (e.g., teachers) often assist national and state programmes in addition to their normal work. Safety not only matters to the health and safety of the public but well-being of the public as well.
With a lot of grief for Shamanta Kumari M G, and in this case as such, a teacher with dedication to the students and the public service. Her death has left a huge hole in the school and the school community is now so full of discussions on how to manage workload, employees’ welfare and support for government workers who are doing extra work.
As the authorities investigate the details of the incident, teachers' organisations are asking for efficient administration and health of workers who will have to do things and are charged with all these responsibilities.
