The Madras High Court recently asked the State to respond to a petition seeking rent-free housing for teachers in both government and private schools and colleges.
A division bench of Justice CV Karthikeyan and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy ordered the State to file their reply within four weeks in the plea filed by M Purushothaman, an advocate.
Purushothaman has maintained that affordable housing is a basic and necessary need for teachers to have a peace of mind which would enable them to be able to give meaningful education.
He has also claimed that in the Gurukulam system, teachers or Gurus were traditionally provided with luxuries such as land, materials, amenities, and facilities by society, rulers, and nobility.
“Providing rent-free housing to a hardworking teaching community involved in the very important task of nation building will ensure betterment of the Society and Country at large, thereby furthering the right to livelihood of the citizens of this Country guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India,” the petition stated.
The petition further stated that while many school promoters these days are real estate industry people, they do not create “even tiny sheds” for their teachers, let alone use the excess funds to build houses.
Purushothaman has highlighted that during the COVID-19 pandemic, many private school teachers were obliged to work as fee collecting agents, and that private school administration took advantage of the teachers’ predicament to seek parents to pay fees.
Despite recommendations were made to authorities to ensure that all Educational Agencies administering schools and colleges construct living houses and provide free accommodation to teachers before embarking on any expansion by diverting school or college funds, no action was taken, the plea alleged.
He also stated that he had submitted a representation to create a special scheme known as the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gurukul Scheme,’ which could include grants to schools for the construction of rent-free housing, allotment of public land for the construction of quarters, providing subsidies to teachers to buy houses, and directing banks and financial institutions to provide interest-free housing loans to teachers.
Purushothaman, on the other hand, claimed that no action has been taken in response to these representations.
The plea further seeks directions for considering his representation be considered in this regard. He has also asked the court to order the government to allot public lands, grant subsidies, and interest-free housing loans to teachers.
