By: Dr. Ashaque Ahmad Dar
In Kashmir, despite having some of the most talented and highly educated youth, an injustice continues unabated in our colleges and universities. This injustice targets those who have devoted years to building expertise, earning PhDs from the best universities in India, and clearing challenging national and state eligibility tests like NET and SLET. These young men and women should be shaping the future and inspiring the next generation, yet instead, they find themselves trapped in a system that devalues their teaching, disregards their qualifications, and undermines their dignity.
Consider the plight of ‘Academic Arrangement Lecturers.’ This is not merely a job title it is an invention by the administration, designed to avoid the legal and moral obligation to treat these teachers fairly. The University Grants Commission (UGC), the highest authority for higher education in the country, has set a clear standard: contractual Assistant Professors must be paid a minimum of ₹57,700 per month under the 7th Pay Commission’s rationalized pay structure. The logic is simple those who have worked hard and met this high bar should receive compensation that reflects their skill and responsibility.
However, in Kashmir, the administration has chosen a different path. Instead of recognizing these teachers as Assistant Professors, they have changed the name to “Academic Arrangement Lecturers.” This sly change in nomenclature allows them to sidestep the rules and pay these highly qualified teachers a meager ₹28,000 per month, much less than their counterparts even in the neighboring region of Ladakh, where the UGC’s standard is followed. In effect, those who have earned the highest credentials are treated as second-class, their expertise used but barely rewarded.
Every year, during the summer vacations in the Jammu region and the long winter holidays in Kashmir, the colleges close for at least two months. During these periods, these teachers are simply abandoned no salaries are paid, and their contracts are effectively paused until the colleges reopen. These vacation months become seasons of uncertainty and hardship, as there is no income to support their basic needs. To make matters worse, their experience certificates reflect only nine months of work, listing two separate joining and leaving dates corresponding to the college closures.
This fragmented record is confusing and undervalued by other universities and Colleges outside Kashmir that require evidence of continuous, full-year experience. As a result, many Kashmiri “Academic arrangement faculties” find themselves unfairly excluded from job opportunities elsewhere, trapped in a vicious cycle with no escape, unable to secure better employment or build a stable future for themselves and their families. This cruel system exploits their dedication and sacrifices, leaving them stuck in limbo and betrayed by those who should stand by them.
For years, the “Academic Arrangement lectures” have waited and protested, only to be met with bureaucratic indifference and empty promises. The worst affront came when the Education Minister was recently asked by a journalist about the fate of these teachers. Instead of showing compassion or proposing reform, the minister curtly replied that if the teachers are unhappy with earning only ₹28,000, they should not apply. That one statement captures everything: total disregard for education, no empathy for people who have struggled and achieved so much, and no understanding of the real problems facing our young generation. The message is clear if you are talented and qualified in Kashmir, you must accept exploitation or simply give up hope.
Legally, this system violates not only the UGC’s guidelines but also India’s fundamental labor laws. The Contract Labor (Regulation and Abolition) Act promises equal pay for equal work, as does the Indian Constitution. The deliberate use of “Academic Arrangement Lecturer” shows a conscious attempt to bend the law and rob teachers of what they are rightfully due. The excuse that “this is only a temporary arrangement” used to justify poor pay and incomplete job records falls apart when year after year, the administration continues the practice with no end in sight.
But perhaps the deepest damage is psychological. Many of these young people entered teaching inspired by the idea that knowledge could transform lives, that by giving their all in the classroom, they could lift up their students and their society. Now, standing before their students, how do they ask them to pursue higher education, to believe in merit and hard work, when their own experience is a powerful argument against it? When your own teacher struggles to make ends meet and is told by the system that their years of study count for nothing, what lesson does that teach the next generation?
This is not just a problem for these Academic Arrangement lecturers; it is a problem for all of us. If we allow exploitation to continue, if we let our most educated lose hope and motivation, what future are we really building? What inspiration can we offer the youth who look to their teachers for guidance and reassurance, if those same highly qualified people are underpaid, undervalued, and denied basic respect? Kashmir’s administration must immediately correct this injustice.
The solution is not complicated. Follow the UGC’s rules, pay ‘Academic Arrangement’ lectures as Assistant Professors, and recognize the full value of their experience and qualifications. Treat these young people not as temporary liabilities, but as the very foundation of society’s progress. The measure of any society is how it treats those who serve; it is time to live up to that ideal.
The struggle faced by Academic Arrangement contractual lecturers in Kashmir is a stain on our education system and a betrayal of the dreams of an entire generation. Either we change course and treat our teachers with the dignity they have earned, or we risk losing the very people responsible for lighting the way forward. The time for excuses has long passed. The time for justice and hope is now.
mark.dworld7@gmail.com, rahiaashiq@gmail.com
