Private school teachers in Nabha, Patiala, staged a protest after the Municipal Council assigned them enumeration duties for the upcoming Census 2027. Many teachers alleged that they were pressured into compliance through fear of administrative repercussions. Official circulars from the office of the Census Charge Officer-cum-Executive Officer, Municipal Council Nabha, directed school principals, including those of private institutions, to immediately submit staff details, including designations, E-Punjab IDs, email and residential addresses, and contact numbers for deployment as enumerators and supervisors.
Preliminary lists and training schedules
A preliminary list of several staff members from local private schools was already drawn up. Mandatory training sessions were scheduled to run from 9 am to 5:30 pm across three phases between April 23 and May 6. Census fieldwork is to be carried out after school hours. Some training sessions of three hours each have already been conducted.
Teachers speak out
Teachers, speaking on condition of anonymity, described a climate of quiet coercion within their institutions. "Our school management simply handed us our names on the list. Nobody asked us — they were afraid that refusing the district officials could invite trouble during school inspections or renewals," said one senior private school teacher. A teacher with over a decade of experience described the workload as unsustainable: "Full-day training sessions on working days, followed by fieldwork after school — when are we supposed to prepare lessons? Nobody is thinking about our students. Our families and kids will suffer too with this workload."
Teachers also pointed to the absence of any policy recourse. "Government teachers at least have some assurances from the top, as earlier CM Bhagwant Singh Mann had announced that teachers will not be forced to carry non-academic tasks. We have nothing. No one speaks for us, and no one is accountable when we are burdened like this despite we get poor salaries," said another teacher, visibly frustrated. He also noted that influential schools were not instructed by the district administration for census duties.
Government and aided school teachers also enrolled
The mobilization was not limited to private institutions alone. According to ADC Rural Damanjeet Singh Mann, teachers from government and government-aided schools in the area were also being enrolled for census duties. He said, "As per Rule 3 of Census Rules 1990, teachers, clerks or any official of the state government and local authority can be appointed as enumerator, while supervisor will be an officer generally of a rank higher than enumerator. Besides government and government-aided school teachers and contractual employees, private school staff can also be recruited for this task. They will be paid honorarium as per rules." On staff shortage details in Patiala, he added, "There are 40 in-charge in our district, and data will have to be compiled to check how much shortage of staff we face."
Union opposition
Vikram Dev Singh, president of the Democratic Teachers Front, objected to assigning duties to government teachers. He said, "More than 70,000 government school teachers in Punjab are being assigned duties for the census. Teachers should not be given non-academic tasks. CM Bhagwant Mann had made false promises that he will not allow non-academic tasks to be imposed on teachers. He even claimed to have refused the central government on providing teachers for census duties, but all these turned out to be blatant lies. Four days ago, we met the DC Patiala and requested him to at least rationalize duties so that no government school may witness more than 50 percent of its teachers assigned census duties. The government should hire unemployed people for such duties."
School administrations feel trapped
Several private school administrations were themselves uncomfortable with the directive but submitted staff lists regardless, fearing indirect consequences. "Even our management does not want to send us, but they feel trapped. The circular essentially holds the school accountable, so they pass that pressure down to us," one teacher said. The Executive Officer of Municipal Council Nabha, Gurcharan Singh, had not responded for comment despite repeated attempts.
