Mid-day Meal Workers Protest in Patna

Bihar Rajya Vidhyalaya Rasoiya Sangh (Mid-day Meal workers union) affiliated with AICCTU organised a huge protest on 24 July in Patna for Mid-day Meal workers demands of increase in the honorarium to Rs. 10000 per month for 12 months of the year along with a 13-points charter. They also protested the handing over of the Mid-day meal scheme to NGOs in the state.

The Mid-day Meal workers are forced to work on Rs. 50 rupees per day wages which is starkly inhuman and exploitative. The massive protest was led by union’s president Vibha Bharati, general secretary Saroj Chaube and AICCTU leader Ranvijay Kumar. AIPWA national general secretary Mina Tiwari also addressed the protesting Rasoiyas. 

CPIML MLAs Satyadev Ram and Gopal Ravidas, MLS Shashi Yadav, AICCTU leaders RN Thakur, Rambali Prasad also addressed the gathering. 

Speakers condemned the Nitish government for giving humiliating wages to Mid-day Meal workers. CPIML MLAs promised to raise this issue inside the State Assembly. The Mid-day Meal workers generally come from extremely backward sections of the society. Modi and Nitish Kumar governments provide only Rs. 1650 pm as honorarium for them which is not only insulting to them but also exploitative. This has not increased during the last ten years.

Now the government is trying to snatch away this meagre employment from the Rasoiyas by handing over this scheme to the NGO sector. The state government has decided to give MDM jobs to the NGOs from 1 July onwards. State’s 240000 Rasoiyas will be affected by this decision.

Saroj Chaube demanded to implement the Minimum Wages Act 1948 in this Scheme and increase the pay/honorarium accordingly. The 13-point charter of demands also included retirement pension of minimum Rs. 3000 pm, provision of dress, a comprehensive retirement package along with other demands.

The protest was also addressed by Kumanti Devi, Dinesh Prasad Kushwaha, Parashuram Pathak, Muhammad Haidar, Ramchandra Prasad, Punam Devi, Rakhi Mehta, Asha Devi, Anuradha Singh and Lila Verma.