The new pension scheme creates further discrimination
When a teacher goes to retirement at the age of 65, it is important that they get a one-time allowance to secure their future and that of their children. The new universal pension scheme does not have any provision for the teachers to receive this amount upon retirement. Another huge issue is the age of retirement. Up until now, the retirement age was 65. The new pension scheme aims to make it 59, creating a gap of six long years. Since we started protesting, there have been government press releases saying that it would remain 65 for university teachers, even though the government-mandated retirement age would be 59. Does this not create discrimination, the very thing they wanted to remove with the universal pension scheme?
Moreover, the University of Dhaka is an autonomous institution, like many other universities and institutes in the country. The government cannot force an autonomous institution to participate in a universal pension scheme without dialogue or any sort of consultation.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. The scheme also requires us to participate in a contributory fund, where we have to deposit Tk 5,000 out of our monthly salaries. Does it make sense for a newly appointed lecturer in a university, who gets Tk 22,000-30,000 per month in remuneration, to deposit Tk 5,000 each month out of their salaries? What are they left with? How will they cover their living expenses?
In the existing system, the nominee of a university teacher is also eligible for a life-long pension. In the new scheme, if a university teacher passes away at the age of 75, their nominees will not be eligible for pension benefits. They are left with little to nothing. The new scheme will only make teachers and their dependents more financially vulnerable. This cannot be the characteristic of a universal pension scheme, where one group is left off worse to supposedly benefit another group. This is discriminatory, to say the least.
We never wanted things to get this far where we had to stop taking classes. Students are our first and foremost priority. We have been protesting this move ever since the universal pension scheme was announced. We organised teachers from other universities and submitted a compiled, written document of our displeasure with this new scheme to the education ministry. We also prepared an evaluation report comparing the existing scheme to the new one, with the help of expert economists and business school teachers. As the general secretary of the teachers' association, I submitted the report to the ministry on behalf of all my colleagues. There have been no follow-ups on those reports.
When nothing worked, we started with two-hour strikes, eventually moving to half-day and full-day strikes. We did not start protesting all of a sudden, whereas the finance ministry issued the notice for the new pension scheme on March 13 without any consultation with the stakeholders. We only scaled up our protests after we were left with no other options.
We have not held our students hostage in this situation; rather, we have been held hostage by the finance ministry. Our students will take on the roles of teachers in the future. The new scheme will not affect the existing teachers as much as it will affect the future generation of faculty members. So this is a battle we are fighting to protect our successors, our students who will take on our responsibilities in the near future.
Dr Zeenat Huda is chairperson at the Department of Sociology in the University of Dhaka.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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