Haryana: Contractual professors seek job security, push for bill

According to official sources, the Ordinance stipulates that only those assistant professors who had completed five years of service by August 15, 2024, would be eligible for job security until 60, along with other parameters.

After meeting the CM, Association secretary Vijay Kumar said: “For more than a year, the contractual assistant professors of the universities have been waiting for service security. It should not be delayed any longer.”

He also said: “The Association has already collected information from the six universities where the government sought details. We have found that none of the contractual assistant professors there had completed five years of service as of August 15, 2024.”

Many of the 1,400 contractual professors have been serving since 2010, when their monthly salary was just Rs 10,000. Today, they receive Rs 57,700, which remains less than half of what regular assistant professors with comparable service length earn. Visiting faculty and part-time teachers recruited through walk-in interviews are paid between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000 per month.

The Association insists that contractual assistant professors deserve service security until 60, arguing that if regular appointments are made by the Haryana Public Service Commission, their services may be discontinued despite meeting all eligibility criteria.

In December 2024, the Higher Education Department constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the Vice-Chancellor of Maharshi Dayanand University, Rohtak. The panel would examine the feasibility of granting service security until the age of 60 or until regularisation under the Contractual Employee Service Security Ordinance, 2024. The panel was formed shortly after the state BJP announced on X that contractual assistant professors would be given job security similar to college extension lecturers, for whom a Bill had already been passed in November 2024.