Rampur: Sarahan mid-day meal workers seek salary hike

Rampur, April 14

The Mid-Day Meal Workers Union affiliated with the Sarahan block unit and related to the CITU held a meeting in Jeori yesterday. While addressing the meeting, CITU district president Kuldeep Singh said the Central Government was trying to privatise the Mid-Day Meal scheme to benefit the capitalists when the country was witnessing increase in malnutrition and hunger. According to the recommendations of the 45th Labour Conference, the Central Government was not providing labour status and facilities like pension, gratuity etc to the mid-day meal workers, he added.

The union rued that the Modi-led government had not increased the salary of mid-day meal workers by one rupee since 2014. The Modi-led government has prepared a blueprint to end it by changing the name of the mid-day meal scheme to Pradhan Mantri Poshan Yojana.

“The government was starting a central kitchen and initiating Direct Benefit Transfer under the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. Mid-day meal accounts in schools have been closed. The Central Government was implementing the New Education Policy in the country due to which government schools were being closed on a large scale. Workers have no option but to oust the anti-worker Modi-led government from power,” said the CITU president.

“The state government has announced an increase in the honorarium from Rs 4,000 to Rs 4,500 from April 1. The increase by only Rs 500 is a joke! Due to the rationalisation policy of the government, schools with less students are being closed, but the government is not making taking any concrete step to secure the employment of mid-day meal workers. The employment of mid-day meal workers is being taken away by the government,” he added.

The Himachal Pradesh High Court had ordered that the mid-day meal workers be paid a salary for 12 months instead of 10 months, which neither the previous government nor the present government was implementing, said the members.

“The union is continuously demanding that the salary of mid-day meal workers should be made equal to the minimum wage of Rs 12,000 and the status of labourers should be given to us, as per the decision of the high court,” said union president Meena. The union has warned that if their demands were not met, it would intensify its protests.

At the meeting, Bimla Devi, Promila, Asha, Vijay Lakshmi, Rukmani, Babli Devi, Kamala, Krishna, Shanti Devi and other members were present.