Apart from defrauding the exchequer of thousands of crores, the Shalarth scam involved extorting bribes from teachers who were applying for dues and increments or diverting the money to others. Mumbai-based activist Shivnath Darade says, “Teachers were made to wait for long periods and run from pillar to post for lawful accruals. Money was demanded under the table to speed up the process.”Since records of every teacher from a govt or aided school needed to be updated on the portal, many were at the mercy of the staff running it. Anita Miranda, a teacher at an aided school in Mumbai, says she was eligible by 2014 for promotion to teach class 9 and 10 students, but she had to wait for three years for a salary upgrade.She started unofficially teaching class 9 and 10 students the next year. By 2017, after repeated inquiries with the education department, she alleges she was told to sign a letter stating that she had been teaching higher grade students since 2014, after which changes were made to her salary grade on the Shalarth portal, indicating a promotion. But the increased salary never came.Similarly, in a govt school in Thane, backdated entries have allegedly been made for teachers who joined much later than the records show. “A teacher in my school was hired in 2014, but his Shalarth ID shows he has been teaching since 2012,” alleges a teacher from the same school. “If a proper investigation is done, there will be many more cases in my school itself.” —Mahiyar Patel
