Mid-day meal workers demand Rs 7,000 salary

Amritsar, November 17

The Mid-Day Meal Workers Union, Punjab, has announced that it would hold protests against the state government for not acting on official declarations agreed upon by the Education Minister in a meeting held two months back. The mid-day meal workers have been demanding a wage hike in line with Haryana, health insurance of up to Rs 5 lakh besides leaves and allowances.

Sharing details, state general secretary of the union Mamata Sharma, who works as a mid-day meal worker in Rayya school, said before the Punjab Assembly elections, the Aam Aadmi Party had promised that the honorarium of mid-day meal workers would be doubled. “We had demanded a monthly salary of Rs 7,000 in line with what mid-day meal workers in Haryana are getting. We had also demanded a uniform for winter and summer, health insurance up to Rs 5 lakh and leave, which otherwise we are not entitled to. If we take leave, we have to arrange a replacement worker, who demands Rs 200-Rs 300 per day whereas our monthly salary of Rs 3,000 gets us a daily wage of Rs 100. In a meeting held two months back, Education Minister Harjot Bains had verbally agreed on issuing an official notification on granting us health insurance and allowance for hiring replacement workers when we take leave. But till date, no official orders have been issued. The government is deliberately delaying the matter,” she said.

Mamata Sharma said mid-day meal workers should be brought under the minimum wages law and given a salary of Rs 10,700 per month. Their demands also include medical and six-month maternity leave. Workers retrenched from mid-day meal scheme should be adjusted in government schools and ESI, EPF facilities be extended to them.

The union estimates that there are around 45,000 mid-day meal workers in the state. “We are all ready to hit the streets and are planning a rally in Sangrur soon, if the government is not serious on working out solutions,” she said.

The Congress government of Charanjit Singh Channi had earlier granted a regular annual honorarium to mid-day meal workers in the state and increased their salary from Rs 2,300 to Rs 3,000.