‘It’s our hard-earned money’

My mother Maya Devi has been working as a sweeper for a school – which is a private school run with government aid – since 1983. She is 55 years old and is a resident of Rana Pratap Bagh. She was made to work overtime and her salary was way below what it should have been. She was not provided bonus, nor was there any increase in salary for a long time. They pay her Rs 4,500 even in these times. Thus, we went to court in 2007. The case was going on in Dwarka Court.

The Court passed the judgement recently on April this year, where they ordered that she should be paid the right amount (starting from 2007) but the Education Department is not complying with the order. And now, they are not even paying the monthly salary on a regular basis. For the last six months, she has not been paid. But she is still working there. We approached some lawyers and requested them to look into the matter. We are not demanding anything unjust — all we want is the money my mother worked for, day in and day out all these years.

Hanshu is a Class-IV employee in Delhi Govt
— As told to Shruti Das