Uttar Pradesh: Teachers assigned for bridal makeup duty

After the order made the rounds on social media, it was withdrawn by the evening

marriage-wedding-hindu-india (File) Representational image

In a rather bizarre order issued on Monday, teachers were appointed to do the makeup for brides to be in a group marriage ceremony to be organised in Siddharthnagar district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday. After the order made the rounds on social media, it was withdrawn by the evening.

The first order read: “Under the group marriage scheme of the honourable chief minister, a ceremony is to be organised on the district basic education office ground on 28/1/2020. For the programme, the following teachers have been entrusted with the duty of doing the makeup of the brides.” The order then goes on to name 20 assistant teachers who would deck up the brides. They were directed to reach the venue for the ceremony at 9 am.

The order was issued by the block education officer Dhruv Prasad. The ceremony is scheduled to take place at Naugarh block.

It is to be noted that the state’s Basic Education Minister (state minister with independent charge) Satish Dwivedi belongs to Siddharthnagar and was probably hoping to score a few brownie points from the chief minister for this unique initiative. One of Dwivedi’s first orders after assuming charge was to make 15 minutes of yoga mandatory in all government schools.

Some hours later, another order, issued by the district basic education officer Suryakant Tripathi, noted: “The order stands cancelled with immediate effect”. It also added that appropriate action will be taken against the block education officer who issued the earlier order.

Charging teachers with bridal makeup duties is inexcusable in a state with high teacher absenteeism—frequently because teachers are engaged in other tasks such as data collection, submission of reports/data related to mid-day meal (MDM), children with special needs (CWSN), and departmental work related to health, elections, and panchayat meetings among others. As per the annual status of education report (2018), average teacher attendance in rural UP is 87 per cent while for students it is 59.5 per cent.

Basic education officer Tripathi told THE WEEK, “It is not unusual to put school officials on duty for such programmes which are for societal good. However giving such an order in writing was wrong. It could have been conveyed verbally and those who wanted to be a part of it would have done their bit. A show case notice has been issued to the block education officer”.