Workers of mid-day meal threaten to go on strike

BANGALORE: Members of the Karnataka Rajya Akshara Dasoha Naukarara Sangha on Monday said they would go on an indefinite protest from October 17, if the government failed to recognise the needs of workers of midday meal scheme. Speaking to reporters, S Varalakshmi, president of the association, said that scores of women who cook the meals for school children have been deprived of necessities.“These women have no social security or even a minimum wage. They are made to suffer even after 10 years of work,” said Varalakshmi. She alleged that the state government was sidelining these workers by outsourcing work to organizations like ISKCON.“Due to such privatisation of mid-day meals scheme, around 30,000 women have remained unemployed,” she added. Almost 90,000 women are a part of this scheme in 54,793 schools in the state, serving close to 69 lakh students.In December 2009, the Centre hiked the salaries of these workers to `600 on one hand, while downsising in large numbers on the other.“For schools having 26-71 students, there were 3 cooks. Now, for schools having 26- 100 students, the government says that 2 cooks are enough. This has left almost 6,000 cooks stranded,” said Malini Mesta, Chief Secretary of the Karnataka Rajya Akshara Dasoha Naukarara Sangha.Some of their demands are hike in wages, provision for basic necessities and to stop the downsizing of workers and cooks, disbursement of salary in the first week of every month, no privatisation of any school scheme among others.