People's Democracy

MID DAY MEAL WORKERS

Fighting for Rights –

Relentless and Determined

A R Sindhu

THE Food Security Act 2013 has made provision of the midday meal in the school the right of every child upto class VIII or within the age group of fourteen years in the country. But the government mechanism to implement the law, India’s prestigious flagship programme ‘National Programme for Mid Day meals in Schools’, popularly known as the Mid Day Meal Scheme, is still in its primary stage with constraints of financial allocation, lack of infrastructure, inadequate monitoring and managing system and poorly paid workers. Started in 1995 to end classroom hunger, to achieve the millennium development goal of universal education, expanded in 2007 and universalised in 2009, the MDMS provides mid day meals to nearly 11 crore children in 12 lakh schools in the country. Many state governments like Kerala and Tamilnadu were implementing the scheme much earlier.

Nearly 26 lakh workers, mostly women belonging to the backward sections of the society, who spend around six to eight hours a day for the preparation, cooking and cleaning, are not recognised as workers. They are not paid anything near the minimum wages, merely a pittance of Rs 1000 per month, that too for only 10 months. After long years of service they are retrenched without any social security or pension. Even though cases of accidents and burns are common, they are not covered under any insurance or medical benefits.

The All India Coordination Committee of Mid Day Meal Workers (CITU), formed in 2009, has continuously been raising the demands of the workers as well as the demand for better coverage and facilities of the scheme.

The tragedy in Bihar, in which 23 children, including two children of a mid day meal worker, died after consuming the midday meal, brought into the national debate, the loopholes in this most important scheme. However, instead of taking the necessary measures for the effective implementation of the programme, the government is resorting to its privatisation by handing it over to corporates like Vedanta and NGOs like ISKCON’s Akshaya Patra Foundation, Naandi Foundation etc. These NGOs are supplying food cooked in centralised kitchens located in places far off from the schools, going against the basic concept of providing freshly cooked hot meals for the children.

The continuous struggles by the Mid Day Meal workers in the country, and the pressure by the central trade unions, particularly the CITU, could bring the working conditions of the scheme workers, including the midday meal workers, onto the agenda of the Labour Conference. The 45th session of Indian Labour Conference held in May 2013 recommended that mid day meal workers, along with the workers in the other ‘schemes’ of government of India, be recognised as workers, paid minimum wages and given social security benefits. But the HRD ministry has opposed this otherwise unanimous decision.

Due to the pressure built by the trade unions, the HRD ministry in the 45th session of the ILC assured that the remuneration of the mid day meal workers would be enhanced in the financial year 2013-14. This was reiterated by the Minister of State for HRD when a delegation of All India Coordination Committee of Mid Day Meal Workers (CITU) met him on 27th July 2013. But after eight months this has still not been implemented, even when the prices of all essential commodities are sky rocketing, making it impossible for the mid day meal workers to feed their own children two square meals a day.

In many schools, mid day meal workers who have been working for decades are being retrenched on one or other pretext, including that only a parent of a child studying in that particular school can be employed as midday meal worker.

In this situation the AICCMDMW (CITU) decided to intensify its struggles for better working conditions and increase in wages. Many militant struggles were conducted at the state level, which forced the state governments like Haryana and Karnataka to increase the remuneration of mid day meal workers. Struggles were conducted at the state level from 10-17 February.

The anger of the workers against the anti-worker UPA II government was such that in just three weeks notice, more than two thousand mid day meal workers from nine states - Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand gathered at Jantar Mantar on 13 February for the ‘March to Parliament’.

The march was inaugurated by Tapan Sen, MP and CITU general secretary, at Jantar Mantar. He called upon the mid day meal workers to carry on the struggles to keep the issues on the agenda of the nation and the political parties.

The presidium consisted of Satvir Singh (Haryana), Chabi Ram (HP), Manzubhai Kothwal (Maharashtra), Radha Sarangi (Odisha), Charanjeet Kaur (Punjab), Sumitra Chopra (Rajasthan), Karuna (UP) and Reshmi Bisht (Uttarakhand). Sitaram Yechury, leader of CPI(M) in Rajya Sabha and Basudev Acharya, leader of CPI(M) in Lok Sabha assured the gathering that the struggle inside parliament by the Left parties will echo the struggle outside parliament by the working class.

Those who addressed the gathering include K Hemalata, CITU secretary, Ranjana Nirula, convener, ASHA Workers Coordination Committee and CITU treasurer, Maimoona Mollah, AIDWA, Avoy Mukherjee, DYFI general secretary, V Sivadasan, SFI president, Wazir Singh, STFI vice president.

Mid Day Meal Union leaders Saroj (Haryana), Jagat Ram (HP), Malini Mesta (Karnataka) Nagargojhe Prabhakar (Maharashtra), Isani Sarangi (Odisha), Harpal Kaur (Punjab), Manju Gaur (Rajasthan) and Rampyar Yadav (UP) addressed the gathering.

A R Sindhu, convener AICCMDMW (CITU) in her concluding address warned of further struggles if the arrears of the increase in honorarium announced by the government are not paid. She called upon the midday meal workers to carry forward the struggle for their just demands of regularisation and minimum wages and pension and to save the scheme which provides 15 per cent of the family calorie intake of the poor of the country.

Charter of Demands

●                   Implement the 45th ILC recommendation recognising Mid Day Meal Workers as workers, provide them minimum wages and pension and other social security benefits.

●                   Immediate increase in remuneration as per the assurance of the HRD Ministry

●                   Payment for all 12 months in full through zero balance bank account

●                   180 days paid maternity leave with wages

●                   Stop privatisation of the MDM Scheme. Immediately stop handing over the preparation of food to the ISKCON Akshaya Patra, Naandi Foundation and other NGOs or corporates like Vedanta.

●                   Ensure safety of Mid Day Meal Workers and provide medical insurance. Mid Day Meal Workers must be covered under Janshree Beema Yojna

●                   The Mid Day Meal Scheme must be extended to cover all children up to XII Standard.

●                   Ensure adequate financial allocation to the Mid Day Meal Scheme to ensure proper infrastructure, including kitchen sheds, storage place and safe drinking water etc.

●                   Provide freshly cooked food to all school children. No centralised kitchen should be allowed in the scheme. Adequate financial allocation for food and cooking cost. Cooking gas must be made available for cooking food.

●                   Appoint adequate staff at the implementation level for better coordination, monitoring and accounting.

●                   Include the representatives of the central trade union federations of the mid day meal workers in the monitoring committee of MDMS.

●                   Ensure effective implementation of the scheme with transparency at all levels, taking measures against corruption.

●                   There should be no retrenchment of the existing Mid Day Meal workers. Appoint minimum two Mid Day Meal Workers in every school.

●                   Ensure safety of Mid Day Meal Workers and provide medical insurance. Mid Day Meal Workers must be covered under Janshree Beema Yojna

●                   They should be given appointment letters and ID cards. Uniform service rules should be implemented all over the country.

●                   Provide Uniforms and  washing allowance to all Mid Day Meal workers

●                   Form state and district level grievance redressal committees at state and district levels with representatives of Mid Day Meal Workers, as in the case of ICDS, to discuss the problems of Mid Day Meal Workers.