No health check-up for mid-day meal scheme cook-cum-helpers

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 5

After facing difficulties in receiving monthly honorarium on a regular basis, the cook-cum-helpers (CCHs) being engaged in over 23,000 government schools in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir also being deprived of mandatory health check-ups. Around 31, 136 CCHs have been engaged by the government schools to prepare meals for the enrolled students under the Centrally sponsored scheme Mid-day Meal Scheme (MDMS).

Sources said a decision regarding health check-up of the CCHs was taken by the J&K government in a meeting held last year. At the meeting, the Health Department was requested to get the health check-up of the CCHs done at the nearest Primary Health Centres (PHCs) of the schools. They added that no such initiative was taken by the authorities to ensure the health check-up despite repeated reminders.

Sources added that it was also decided in the meeting that the cook-cum-helpers would wear hand gears and gloves at the time of cooking of meals but it did not happen. “The food is cooked in a very hygienic manner for students of the school but we are not provided gloves and gears for cooking the meals”, one of the cook-cum-helpers of a government schools confirmed.

“Leave aside gloves and gears, we have to wait for months to get even a meagre monthly honorarium. But even then we come to school to cook meals for poor children whose parents send them as they cannot afford their study in private schools”, the cook-cum-helper added. Sources further said out of 23,121 schools under the flagship scheme in J&K, only 14,567 schools were cooking meals by using LPG.

“Steps have been taken by the authorities to provide LPG as fuel in the MDMS in all schools. However, there are some schools which are located in remote and hilly areas where the use of LPG is not feasible because of the massive head load and therefore, the timber is used for cooking of meals in those schools which has been found as the best alternative for those schools”, an official said.

Scheme launched in 2004 This scheme was launched in schools of J&K in 2004 with an objective of enhancing enrollment, retention and attention besides improving nutritional status among children.