He said the idea came to him in 2020 when his colleague Mohammad Shakeel Ahmed died in a road accident. Ahmed’s wife and three children – two daughters and a son – got the shock of their life, with an uncertain future staring at them. That prompted the birth of the Teachers’ Self-Care Team (TSCT). It extended a helping hand to the distraught family by raising Rs 7 lakh through contributions.

Nazneen Begum, 48, wife of Mohammad Shakeel Ahmed, said, “The money I got after my husband’s sudden demise secured the future of my two sons and helped in paying the premium for insurance policies that my husband had. Besides financial assistance, the money gave us stability at a time when no one else was there to back us.”

Ahmad’s family was the first to receive financial help. In the absence of government compensation, TSCT provided a big respite to the bereaved families of government teachers.

Take the example of Harish Gangwar, a government teacher in Bareilly. He passed away in 2024 due to bone marrow failure after spending almost five months in a hospital in Delhi.

“When Harish Bhai was on a ventilator, he had personally asked me to take care of his family. He was looking for a match for his eldest daughter, Priyanka, who is now married to a tehsildar posted in Badaun. He would have been pleased if he had been alive,” said Vivekanand. As the team grew stronger, TSCT also expanded.

Currently, it has 17 office bearers at the state level, 15 in each of 75 districts, and five at 826 blocks across the state. Besides, they have a dedicated IT cell that handles information that comes through social media. TSCT now supports teachers suffering from chronic illnesses. “From May 1, we have started providing financial help of Rs 5 lakh to our colleagues,” Arya said.

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