Schools in UP's Bareilly told to collect straw for stray cattle, teachers protest

In what many government teachers say feels less like an administrative order and more like a late Hindi novelist Harishankar Parsai - written satire brought to life, school staff in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district are now being asked to collect straw for stray cattle, while simultaneously performing census duties.

Under directions issued through the Basic Education Department, every primary school in the district has reportedly been asked to arrange around 46 kilograms of straw for cow shelters. Across blocks, teachers are expected to gather nearly 100 quintals of fodder.

The order, issued by Block Education Officers citing instructions from the district administration, warns that the contribution is mandatory and that the departmental action could follow non-compliance. The move has reignited a familiar debate in Uttar Pradesh: where does a teacher’s job end?

Government school teachers in the state are routinely pulled into non-academic assignments – from election duty and surveys to vaccination drives, ration verification and now census work. The latest directive, however, has struck many as unusually symbolic of how the state’s sprawling stray cattle management system increasingly depends on local administrative mobilisation.

Stray cattle have been a major political and governance issue in Uttar Pradesh for years, particularly after crackdowns on illegal slaughterhouses and tighter cattle protection measures led to a sharp rise in abandoned bovines across rural districts. The Yogi Adityanath government has since invested heavily in gaushalas and cattle shelters under schemes such as the Kanha Pashu Ashray Yojana and other state-run cow protection initiatives.

Bareilly itself has long been central to these efforts. In 2018, the city inaugurated what was described as Uttar Pradesh’s first large shelter home for stray cattle. But alongside the expansion of shelters came a recurring problem: fodder.

Over the years, district administrations across Uttar Pradesh have repeatedly appealed to local communities, village heads and even teachers to help feed stray cattle housed in government shelters. In 2022, a similar controversy erupted in Sant Kabir Nagar after teachers were asked to donate at least one quintal of fodder for cows kept in shelters.

In Bareilly’s latest case, copies of the orders quickly spread across social media, drawing sharp criticism from teacher unions and educators already complaining of mounting non-teaching responsibilities.

Some teachers reacted with biting sarcasm. “Tomorrow they may ask us to collect cow dung, bathe calves or clean drains too,” one teacher leader remarked.

Others questioned why educators tasked with improving learning outcomes were now being asked to effectively participate in fodder collection drives.