Employee Status, Minimum Wage for Cook-cum-Helpers Associated with PM-Poshan Scheme, Demand Unions
The Wire Staff
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New Delhi: Worker unions have demanded an increase in the honorarium of cook-cum-helpers associated with the school meal programme. The demand comes at a time when the Centre has initiated the process of restructuring the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-Poshan) scheme, which was earlier known as the Midday Meal Scheme.
The department of school education and literacy under the education ministry has informed the state governments that the PM-POSHAN scheme will be restructured soon. The ministry has sought suggestions and inputs from states and Union Territories for improvements and modifications in the scheme.
Nearly 11 crore children in 10.35 lakh government and aided primary and upper primary schools are given one hot-cooked meal on every school day. In rural areas, nearly 25 lakh cook-cum-helpers are engaged in the preparation of food and in cleaning and maintaining the school kitchens. However, these cook-cum-helpers are paid a meager Rs 1,000 a month as honorarium for 10 months a year, despite working for about five hours a day.
The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) and the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (Citu) have demanded that workers under government schemes, including PM‑POSHAN, be granted employee status and paid wages equivalent to the minimum wage.
“The stand of the BMS is very clear. Persons engaged in government schemes like PM-POSHAN, Anganwadi, ASHA and similar programmes should be granted the status of employees and paid minimum wage, not honorarium. Once when they are paid minimum wage and recognised as employees will they be entitled to health and social security benefits under labour laws,” BMS secretary Pawan Kumar was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.
Similarly, Citu general secretary A.R. Sindhu underlined that the honorarium of Rs 1,000 has remained unchanged since 2009 and is unimaginably low. "In 2013, the central government made an assurance at the Indian Labour Conference that the remuneration of workers would be increased. However, nothing has been done. The least the government is required to do is to pay them at the rate of minimum wage."
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