Mid-day meal workers’ stir leave hundreds of students without lunch in Ludhiana

Cooks-cum-helpers have warned of another strike on Sept 12 if their demands of wage revision, gratuity and pension are not met

Mid-day meals were disrupted at several government schools in the district on Tuesday as cook-cum-helpers went on a strike to press for a hike in their monthly honorarium. While meals could not be prepared at many schools, replacements were arranged at some institutions to ensure students were served lunch.

Deputy district education officer (elementary) Manoj Kumar said replacement cooks and helpers had been arranged at a few schools across the district. (HT File)

At several schools, workers either reported for duty or arranged replacements in their absence, said Jagjeet Singh Mann, headmaster of Government Primary School, Mangli Uchi, and district president of the Government Teachers’ Union. “At many schools there was no mid-day meal prepared on Tuesday as the workers went on strike,” he said.

The workers have warned that they will suspend work again on September 12 if their demands are not addressed.

District president of the Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Union Parveen Bala said the workers were seeking a substantial increase in their honorarium, which currently stands at ₹3,000 a month. She said they were also made to perform tasks beyond cooking at schools, making it difficult to manage household expenses on the meagre payment.

“We get just ₹3,000 per month for our job. Besides cooking, we are also made to do various other tasks at the schools. We can’t make ends meet with this meagre wage,” Bala said.

The union is also demanding implementation of the ESI scheme, ₹5 lakh gratuity and a monthly pension of at least ₹9,000 after retirement. Bala said workers had been pressing for a hike for a long time and had already met the education and finance ministers over the issue.

“All our petitions so far have fallen on deaf ears. We were left with no option but to go on strike to register our protest,” she said.

Mann also flagged a separate issue concerning funds for preparing the meals, saying schools had not received cooking money for more than four months. While the government supplies flour, rice and cereals, schools have to purchase vegetables, milk, spices and other ingredients from the cooking money allocated to them.

“It has been over four months that we haven’t received cooking money for mid-day meals. At most places, teachers have been spending out of their own pockets to buy vegetables, milk, spices and other items,” Mann said.

He said he had personally spent more than ₹50,000 over the past four months to meet the expenses.

Deputy district education officer (elementary) Manoj Kumar said replacement cooks and helpers had been arranged at a few schools across the district.