Resentment among degree college faculty over transfers under serious ailment category in Karnataka

Junior faculty members suffering from serious ailments, but unable to get through, point to systemic issues in the process. Firstly, serious ailments haven’t been properly defined in the norms governing these transfers. Secondly, the severity of the disease is not the prime a criteria for the transfer. Once a faculty gets a medical certificate that he/she suffers from a ‘serious ailment’, the only criteria for drawing up the transfer eligibility list is seniority.

There is resentment among government degree college teaching faculty in Karnataka over transfers under the ‘serious ailments’ category.

They claim that while faculty members with serious ailments have failed to make the cut, many seniors, who have cited orthopaedic problems and conditions like diabetes and blood pressure, have made it to the eligibility list for the annual transfer of government degree college teaching faculty in Karnataka.

Compulsory transfer of degree college teaching staff is in progress in Karnataka. This year, the department is planning to transfer 15% of teaching staff, of which 1% will be those suffering serious ailments, as per norms. Given that the number of transfers under this category is limited, competition for the same is high. 

Those seeking transfer under the serious ailments category have to get a certificate from the district medical board where they are posted. The medical board has to certify that they are suffering from a serious ailment for which treatment is not available in the district.

Ranjani K. (name changed), a cancer survivor, is posted as a degree college teaching faculty in one of the districts in north Karnataka. She is undergoing treatment in a hospital in Bengaluru. Add to it, the trauma of living alone, away from her family. She has been trying to get a transfer to either Bengaluru, or one of the surrounding districts, for three years.

Similar is the case of another faculty who has undergone cardiac bypass surgery, and has been waiting for at least two years to get a transfer under the ‘serious ailments’ category. 

However, the department gets a barrage of such requests, and, officials claim that many of them lack valid reasons. Hence, officials re-verify the medical certificates in Bengaluru. A majority of such certificates are usually rejected at this stage. Yet, this year’s eligibility list has 19 cases that were rejected during the re-verification stage in 2022.