Since the liberalization of India's economy beginning in the early 1990s, the government has increasingly employed contract workers to perform various state functions, from cleaning sewers to collecting taxes. The education sector has been no different. Contract, or ad hoc, teachers have become an ever-more-visible face in India's public schools. Debates over the merit of these teachers have been fierce. Proponents of contract teachers view them as a way to bypass what they see as underperforming regular teachers. Opponents argue that contract teachers are unfairly paid less than regular teachers for the same kind of work, are subject to arbitrary dismissals and harassment, and do not teach as well as regular teachers.