Raouf Dar
Jammu: Ghulam Ahmad Awan hails from Kalakot, Rajouri in Jammu region is a seasonal mobile teacher who teaches nomad pupils for over a period of six months. During the six months of summer Ghulam Ahmad lives in hilly areas of Kashmir where he teaches nomad students and for rest of the six months of a year they migrate to Jammu region on seasonal rotation due to inclement weather conditions. Gh Ahmad Awan teaches students of nomad community i.e, Bakerwals, Gujjars, Shepherd communities etc. by his unrelenting hard work. Despite of being a handicapped person, he is facing lot of difficulties but the same isn’t aren’t hindering his noble cause. He has been working hard to give education to students of downtrodden families of Gujjar, Bakerwala’s and that too with limited resources available to him.
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Ghulam Ahmad Awan is very poor and lives in a tent and is fully dependent upon the minuscule salary which he receives for six months which is approximately four thousand (4000). The said amount is very less to meet the two ends of life as he is survived by wife along with three children including two daughters and a son. Ghulam Ahmad finds it very hard to manage the expenses of his family but that doesn’t discourage him to perform his duties in letter and spirit. Gh Ahmad Awan has been recruited as a seasonal mobile teacher in 2006 and since then he is undertaking his job with utmost dedication and honesty. As per official figure available with Kashmir Glacier, more than 1600 seasonal mobile teachers are working in Jammu and Kashmir in 1500 different seasonal schools in which more than 33000 nomad kids are enrolled.
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Ghulam Ahamd Awan while exclusively talking with Kashmir Glacier said that, “Due to poverty I face immense hardships even I don’t own a house to live in as I am living with my family under a small tent. We have to migrate after every six months from Rajouri because of my job.
He said that, as a seasonal mobile teacher he don’t earn enough to manage the day to day expenses of his family at this time when the essential commodities prices are sky rocketing, adding “ My family is sacrificing a lot of things due to low income of mine from this job as I might have quit this profession but my conscience don’t allow me to do so as I want to serve my people particularly these downtrodden children of Gujjar, Bakerwal community who are moving from pillar to post for availing the quality education to their wards.
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He further added, “We were appointed in the year 2006 as a seasonal mobile teacher and from that year the salary scale is left untouched without any increment which is a sheer injustice on our part. If salary of teachers in other departments are increased from time to time then why there is no increment of salary for the Seasonal Mobile teachers? Are they the child of lesser God? He questioned while saying that, “Why we are not treated as fully teachers. Even after working for 16 years we are not given equal rights and if our salaries were increased our life could have been better.”(Kashmir Glacier)
