MUZAFFARNAGAR: Kunwar Pal, 44, a primary teacher in Saharanpur, died of a heart attack on April 10 while on his way to a panchayat poll office for training. In Lakhimpur Kheri, government teacher Ravi Prakash died of Covid-19 on April 16. Staring at uncertainty, Pal’s wife Kiran and Prakash’s wife Sarita got some relief when their accounts were credited with Rs 19 lakh and Rs 20 lakh, respectively. Even as unions in UP sweat it out to ensure government compensation for teachers who have died of Covid-19, an association launched by five teachers a year ago was financially helping griefstruck families. Within a year of its launch, the Teacher Self-Care Team (TSCT) now has 24,000 teachers as members. “I will never forget the help of TSCT,” Sarita said. In the last few months, the association has helped families of 11 teachers. Four of them had died of Covid. “Forty-five families are in queue and we are collecting money for them,” said a member of the union. Government teacher Pradeep Kumar Tripathi died of Covid after panchayat poll training in Pratapgarh. His son Shivam said, “TSCT has so far collected Rs 7 lakh for my family.” The association drew its members from the group of 72,825 teachers who were appointed during Mayawati regime. But their appointment was struck down when Akhilesh Yadav came to power in 2012. They were re-appointed by the Supreme Court in 2016. Co-founder of the association, Farrukh Hasan, a resident of Muzaffarnagar, said, “When we were fighting for appointment in SC, two teachers of our group died. To give some relief to their families we had collected a few lakh rupees after members contributed Rs100 each.” It later led to the formation of the association, he said. The other members are Vivek Nand Arya and Sudesh Pandey from Allahabad, Mahendra Verma from Maharajganj and Sanjeev Rajak from Balia.