Low-paid OCS coaches struggle for living

Thirty-one coaches of Orissa Council of Sports (OCS) have been struggling for over a decade to get the due they deserve for the services they rendered. An advisory wing of the State Sports Department, OCS acted as an executive agency by appointing part-time coaches in 1990, paying them Rs 40 per day each. The wage was subsequently increased to Rs 50 and to Rs 75 five years later. The same year, the chairman of OCS, who is also the Chief Minister, approved a proposal to give regular scale of pay at Rs 1,640-60-2,600-EP-75-2,900/- per month. Since then the OCS coaches received monthly salary of around Rs 4,600 per month. But unlike regular Government coaches, they did not get other benefits such as leave and quarter. But creating a strange precedent in 2001, the Sports Department reconverted the regular scale into a consolidated pay of Rs 3,000 per month. Of course, the amount was subsequently increased to Rs 4,000 in two phases, but the coaches eventually incurred a loss. It was a clear case of discrimination when compared to the salary of the State and Central Government coaches, who earned approxmately Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively during the same period. OCS coaches do same duties as is done by regular coaches. Among the OCS coaches, some have delivered international success. They include Amulya Behera, the mentor of hockey international William Xalxo and Ajay Behera, who groomed junior kabaddi international Mihir Ranjan Pattnaik. Even the government-run sports hostel trainees are getting better treatment than the OCS coaches. ‘‘Government spends around Rs 2,300 per month towards diet expense of a trainee. Besides, the hostel inmates are given free accommodation, education, kit and many other incentives. Put together, the total expense for a trainee exceeds the salary of an OCS coach,’’ pointed out a victim. The aggrieved coaches sought justice from the court of law several times but in vain. Sources say that a court once imposed stay on the government order, which reconverted the salary system from regular scale to consolidate mode. But the government did not honour the court order. Being low-paid employees, the coaches found it difficult to pursue the case further. ‘‘When we are struggling to feed our families how can we spend on litigations,’’ argued another OCS coach. When contacted, the Sports Department authorities earlier expressed their helplessness in the matter. ‘‘OCS is not in a position to pay more. The coaches may quit if the present system of payment is not acceptable to them,’’ a top official of the Directorate of Sports said.