Madras High Court Seeks State's Response On Plea Seeking Rent-Free Housing Quarters For Teachers

Purushothaman has argued that affordable housing is a basic and essential need of teachers to have a peace of mind which would enable them to impart education meaningfully. He has further contended that traditionally in the Gurukulam system, the teachers or Gurus were provided with amenities like land, materials, amenities and facilities by the society, rulers and aristocracy.

"Providing rent free housing to a hard working 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 reads.

The petition further states that though a lot of school promoters these days are real estate business people but they do not build "even tiny sheds" for their teachers let alone use the excess funds for building housing accommodation. Purushothaman has pointed at how during the COVID-19 pandemic, many private school teachers were forced to do the job of fee collecting agents and the private school management took advantage of the plight of teachers to pursue parents to pay fee.

Even though representations were made to authorities to ensure that all Educational Agencies running schools and colleges construct dwelling houses and provide free accommodation to teachers before going for any expansion by diverting the funds of the schools/ colleges, no action was taken, the plea alleges.

He has also submitted that he had given a representation to constitute a special scheme namely ‘Pradhan Mantri Gurukul Scheme’ which could include grants to schools for construction of rent free housing, allotment of public land for construction of quarters, providing subsidies to teachers to buy houses and direction to banks and financial institutions to give interest free housing loan to teachers. However, no action has been taken on these representations, according to Purushothaman. 

The plea also seeks directions for considering his representation in this regard. He has also urged the court to direct authorities to allot public lands, provide subsidy and interest free housing loan for the teachers.