Lucknow: For 56-year-old Godawari, supporting her four-member family with a paltry honorarium of Rs 1,500 a month she gets for cooking food at a government primary school in Prayagraj, is a daily struggle.

“I have two daughters and a son. All of them are studying in government schools. Neither can I provide necessary study materials nor proper food to them,” Godawari, who works at a school in Jhusi of Prayagraj district, said.

Godawari is one among the 3.25 lakh women cook-cum-helpers in the state engaged under PM Poshan, which was known as the Midday Meal Scheme till recently. Under the scheme, hot cooked meals are provided to students in government and government-aided schools on days the schools are open. The MDM scheme covers over 1.15 lakh primary schools and 55,083 upper primary schools, including government-run, government-aided institutions and madarsas in Uttar Pradesh. Over 1.86 crore students, including 1.27 crore of primary and over 58.44 lakh of upper primary schools, are getting its benefit.

Midday meal workers in the state, who earn Rs 1,500 per month, say they have not been paid their meagre wages for the past five months. Though various organisations, including Centre of Indian Trade Unions and All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH), have repeatedly written to the state government, requesting release of wages, it has not yielded any result.

“We were last paid in March, that too after holding multiple protests. Without money we have forgotten to celebrate our festivals in the past three years. The expenses of the house are met either by borrowing money or by farming,” Vidhya, a midday meal worker in Azamgarh told NewsClick. 

Of the 3.25 lakh cook-cum-helpers, 90% are women, mostly single women and widows who have been solely dependent on their monthly honorarium.

Laxmi, another worker, pointed out that the government had neither paid midday meal workers for the past few months nor provided any lockdown relief compensation.

Midday meal workers who NewsClick spoke to demanded they be recognised as “full time labourers” so that they are eligible for minimum wage. “We should also be provided service security and get health and pension benefits,” they said. They also demanded that the government provide them with ration for at least six months.

Under the scheme, the Centre provides for the payment of Rs 1,000 a month to cook-cum-helpers for 10 months in a year, with the states providing the additional amount. For instance, Uttar Pradesh provides Rs 1,500 to Godawari, Laxmi and their co-workers. And that too they have not been getting paid on time since two-three years. 

It must be noted that Yogi Adityanath government had promised to increase Rs 500 during the Assembly election but he has not delivered the promise even four months after the results were announced. 

“The Rs 1,000 per month honorarium is less than what the Anganwadi workers and helpers get from the Centre. The government should increase the monthly honorarium and should pay on time. In Uttar Pradesh the cook should be paid Rs 2,000 per month after Yogi government had promised to increased Rs 500 but they were not even being paid their previous honorarium,” Veena Gupta, secretary, AIFAWH, who led the protests in Lucknow told NewsClick, adding that the government had also promised to give Rs 400 for uniforms but that too was not given to any cook in the state. 

“The midday meal cooks are not recognised as workers but are treated as volunteers and are given a meagre amount as honorarium. The minimum wages are not extended to them. No social security or pension schemes are extended to them,” she said.

Sanjeev Tiwari, the provincial joint secretary of the Primary School Cooks Welfare Association in Sitapur said, the midday meal cooks have not received the honorarium for the last one year in various government aided schools in the district. He claimed that many midday workers were sole breadwinners in their families and were on the “verge of starvation”. 

Courtesy: Newsclick

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Varanasi’s mid-day meal (MDM) workers have stopped going to work after yet another delay – this time for seven months in payment of salaries, MDM cook Savitribai told Sabrang India on February 9, 2022.

The last time Uttar Pradesh’s MDM cooks were in the limelight was in November, 2021 amidst state-wide protests demanding salaries for the past eight months. Earning ₹ 1,500 a month, workers were only asking for ₹ 12,000 per person. On November 11, Cholapur’s Primary school cooks told SabrangIndia that they finally received payment but only five-month worth of salaries i.e only ₹ 7,500.

Now in February, cooks are once again back to the same situation where they are waiting for authorities to pay them their dues. Tired of keeping their hopes up, many cooks stopped going to school to cook and instead took up domestic work in nearby houses or tried to work in their fields. However, as money is short, even the latter is not possible.

“You need seeds, water, manure to grow anything in the fields. My children who have studied till Class 10 don’t earn much. I can’t even pay for my mobile expenses anymore,” said veteran cook Laxmi, speaking from her daughter’s phone. It may be mentioned that after the Covid-19 pandemic, many government services like vaccine appointments have been moved to digital platforms.

Similarly, Savitribai said, “It’s been days since we had daal at home to eat. Every day we only eat potatoes.”

In November, Mid-Day Meal Authority (MDMA) Varanasi AD(B) Kishore said the school department has no more funds to pay the pending money and await further allocation. Yet, even after the budget announcement, the community remains penniless in a state going to polls.

PM POSHAN budget allocation

Originally the National Scheme for Mid-Day Meals in schools (MDM), the scheme was renamed the National Programme of PM POSHAN on September 29, 2021. Regardless, it still provides a hot, cooked meal to children in government and government-aided schools. The scheme aims at improving the nutritional status of students and its allocation is accordingly used to pay the cook-cum-helpers (CCHs) responsible.

After protests, CCHs asked for a monthly payment of ₹ 10,000 a month. Instead, the Budget 2022-23 announced ₹10,234 cr allocation for the scheme, which is the same as the revised estimates of Budget 2021-22. Last fiscal year, the Centre talked about increasing PM POSHAN allocations to ₹ 12,700 cr so as to ensure adequate nutrition to children during the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, it is shocking that despite vocal demands of the scheme workers, the funds have not been revised to an increased investment.

According to the Budget Briefs by Centre for Policy Research, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) set certain conditions when clearing the PM POSHAN scheme for five more years for government and government-aided schools. One of these conditions was that the Government of India would ensure Direct Beneficiary Transfer (DBT) from states to schools, with an emphasis on transferring cooking cost directly to a school’s bank account. It would also try to ensure payment of honorarium to CCHs through DBT directly from the state.

However, like food grains and cooking costs, release of funds for CCHs out of the approved budget declined significantly. In FY 2021-22 till December, only 49 percent of approved funds for CCH were released compared to 80 percent during the same period in FY 2020-21. Punjab and Odisha saw the highest decrease, with less than 50 per cent of approved budget released till December.

CCH in UP elections

Most contesting political parties acknowledged the demands of the CCHs to some degree. Among the most cognisant is the Azad Samaj Party (Kanshiram) or ASP(K), the political party of the Bhim Army led by Chandrashekhar Azad.

In their manifesto for UP elections, the ASP(K) said, “ASHAs, anganwadi workers and mid-day meal cooks will get a salary of ₹ 10,000 and will be regularised.”

माँ-बहन-बेटियों का सम्मान पत्र, युवाओं के रोजगार का अधिकार पत्र, बेटा-भाई-ताऊ-पिताजी के सशक्तिकरण का पत्र, किसानों और मजदूरों के लिए उन्नति का पत्र और दलित-पिछड़े-आदिवासी-अल्पसंख्यकों का अगली सत्ता और सरकार में भागीदारी सुनिश्चित करने के लिए आज़ाद समाज पार्टी का संकल्प पत्र। pic.twitter.com/2gj2lpjR4y

— Chandra Shekhar Aazad (@BhimArmyChief) January 21, 2022

With this, the party addresses two of the most vocal demands of the community. Similarly, the Congress party on Wednesday declared that MDM cooks will get a monthly salary of ₹ 5,000. The announcement was made by Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi-Vadra while announcing the third-part of the party manifesto Unnati Vidhan.

The Samajwadi Party that released its manifesto Samajwadi Vachan Patra mentioned that it will “listen to the demands of the MDM cooks”.

However, the BJP manifesto “Lok Kalyan Sankalp Patra” does not mention CCHs. In its section of “empowered women”, the manifesto promises to provide health insurance under the Ayushman Bharat scheme to anganwadi workers and women health workers.

Over the last two year, the Ministry of Education tried to expand the coverage of the scheme. In FY 2020-21, it requested ₹ 19,946 crore to increase the scope of the programme, include pre-primary and Grades 9-12, provide breakfast, and revise honorarium to CCH. However, only the inclusion of the pre-primary section has been granted so far with decreased allocation.

Related:

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Pandemic or no pandemic, experts and legal provisions like the National Food Security Act (NFSA) repeatedly highlight the importance of mid-day meal schemes and anganwadis in India. Yet recently, Uttar Pradesh workers, who keep such machineries going, complained of severe economic conditions due to government negligence.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, workers complained about the lack of gloves, sanitisers, masks and other protective gear. Now, after surviving the second wave of Coronavirus, Mau anganwadi worker Bina Rai said she suffered from fever, cold and severe fatigue.

“The weather is changing and we’re yet to receive our payment for the last two to three months. On [October 30] morning, I fainted from exhaustion. I finally went to the hospital for an ECG test. But it isn’t easy. I don’t have money and no one will lend me any money either,” said Rai.

She said that the sorry state of their finances was common knowledge among people. Accordingly, people hesitated to lend them money, unsure of whether the women can repay the debt. Rai said that she was supposed to receive Rs. 5,500 monthly for her work, that includes distribution of dry ration to pregnant women and small children.

Items like lentils, wheat, rice and refined oil are included in such packages. However, the amount of grains procured so far can only be distributed among 55-60 percent of pregnant women and children documented by anganwadi workers. Moreover, Rai said the government is yet to allow for the procurement and distribution of the rice that arrived at the ration distributor’s place two months ago. The ration remains there in the office, unused for weeks.

Above all, Rai’s frustration stems from the fact that the government continues to ignore their complaints despite addressing their salary concerns in their manifestoes. “The authorities are simply ruining festivals for all of us. So many mothers in our union cannot buy things for their own children,” she said.

This sentiment was echoed by Varanasi’s anganwadi leader Usha Singh. Singh’s daughter is soon to be married in a few days but her grievances with the government have left a bitter taste in her mouth. She asked, “I am struggling to make ends meet here. The government makes us do everything. Why not pay us?” 

Anganwadi workers are not the only ones unhappy with the government. On October 29, NDTV reported that four lakh cooks preparing mid-day meals in government primary schools haven’t received payment for the last eight months. Each cook receives Rs. 1,500 monthly. Like anganwadis, cooks reported that they cannot avail loans either because of their infrequent earnings. According to NDTV, over 3.95 lakh cooks work in 1,68,768 schools to feed 1.80 crore children. For this, they receive Rs. 50 every day.

Similarly, ASHA workers across India complained about their meagre salaries i.e., a monthly incentive of Rs. 2,000 and an additional Rs. 1,000 for Covid-19 duties.

The Uttar Pradesh government sanctioned Rs. 750 per month from its budget and the average ASHA payment in the State is Rs. 4,270 per month. However, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) volunteers said that hundreds of ASHAs across the state suffered backlogs in payment and often withholding of payment as well.

From September 20 to October 2, ASHA workers started a Desh ki ASHA campaign where they demanded all benefits guaranteed under various schemes regarding fiscal, food and health security. Tired of repeatedly demonstrating, workers like anganwadi women said, “We don’t know what else to do anymore.”

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The All Assam Primary and Upper Primary Midday Meal Cook and Helper Association protested in front of education minister Siddhartha Bhattacharya’s house here on Tuesday in support of their demands, including immediate removal of the NGOs engaged for preparing and distributing midday meals to primary schools of the state, The Telegraph reported.

The workers who returned to work after protesting for 10 days since November 1 blocking national highways at Kaliabor, Golaghat and Tinsukia, were assured by the government that their jobs were not at risk. But the workers have demanded a written assurance from the minister on making their jobs permanent and protecting the rights of women workers by ensuring a minimum wage of Rs. 9,600 per month.

As per reports, the state government handed over the task of cooking and distributing midday meals for primary schools to 15 NGOs from outside the state starting November 1, 2019. The decision drew flak from over 117,000 meal workers across the state, who had been employed in the job since 2005, and began protesting demanding their reinstatement. Following this, delays in midday meal distribution and cases of alleged food poisoning led to the questions being raised over the quality of food being served by the NGOs and further intensification of the protests.

Several organisations like Students’ Federation of India, Democratic Youth Federation of India, Assam State Krishak Sabha, All India Democratic Women’s Association, Citu, Joint Council of Trade Unions and Guwahati Mahanagar Unnayan Samiti also extended their support to the protesting workers and submitted a memorandum to the chief minister through additional deputy commissioner of police Gunendra Deka, demanding immediate suspension of the NGOs.

In the matter, Rita Choudhury, Elementary Education Joint Secretary said, “I have assured them that I will arrange for them to meet the authorities on Wednesday. We have called 10 representatives from the association.”

Worker demands

Trishna Nath, the Association adviser, laid clear demands regarding the case. She said, “Our only condition to sit at the negotiation table is a formal announcement by the state government on immediate removal of the NGOs. We will not accept alternatives to our demands.”

She said the association would not tolerate any government attempt to privatise school kitchens. “Privatisation of school kitchens will also privatise 117,000 meal workers of the state,” she claimed.

Nath insisted on the education minister and Axom Sarba Siksha Abhiyan Mission director Samsher Singh attending the meeting. “We will not talk with other representatives,” she said.

With the protest and allegations in mind, chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal put the centralised kitchen services on hold and ordered a probe into the allegations.

On Sunday, Singh directed all the deputy commissioners of the districts to resume school kitchen services and suspend the centralised kitchen run by NGOs until further orders.

This is not the first time that midday meal workers in Assam have taken to the streets. On October 1 this year, midday meal cooks under the All Assam Midday Meal Karmachari Union had protested in front of the office of Deputy Commissioner stating that involvement of NGOs would deprive them of the meagre monthly remuneration that they are receiving now and also deprive the children of good quality cooked food.

The workers had also demanded that their wages be hiked by the state government. It should be noted that a midday meal cook receives a mere Rs 1,000 per month as salary. The Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) has been demanding a minimum wages of Rs. 18,000 for them for quite a long time.

Protests in Lakhimpur had also intensified early in November with workers alleging that the food served by the Parash Agro Society NGO was of low quality and unhealthy with the mixture of broken glass, mouse faeces and other inedible materials.

In July 2019, midday meal workers in Andhra Pradesh had staged a protest in Vijaywada against the privatisation of the meal scheme for the fear that it would lead to the loss of employment of women workers for whom these jobs were of crucial importance and also sub-standard food for the children.

Why the need for privatisation?

The Assam government had taken a decision to hand over the implementation of the MDM scheme in government-run schools to NGOs in 2010 and finally handed over its responsibility in 2013 to NGO Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) for providing packaged food to the students which began in a phased manner. 

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a non-profit run by ISKCON, has partnered with the mid-day meal scheme in these states to provide lunches to school students. However, it has refused to include eggs, onion and garlic in the food, going against the recommended nutritional guidelines of the scheme. The NGO refused to include these items based on the argument that it can only provide a satvik diet—“a diet based on Ayurveda and yoga literature.” The Tripura government has also entrusted ISKCON to run mid-day meals schemes in the 20 schools handed over to it.

Is this an attempt at the Hinduisation of the tribals?

Former CM and Leader of Opposition said that the privatisation of the midday meal program, putting it in the hands of a single agency would have adverse effects on local businessmen who had been supplying raw materials for the scheme so far.

The arbitrary and unjustified decision of the Assam government has been met with high resistance for being ‘anti-people’ for a very long time now. Putting the future of more than 100,000, mostly rural women at stake, giving them paltry amounts of money for hard work, offering them no social security, along with putting the future of the children availing the scheme at stake, it is now to be seen if the government heeds the demands of the protestors and gives them back their jobs with their dignity.

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