Shillong, Oct 10: After two decades of preparing mid-day meals for an honorarium, cook-cum-helpers under the PM POSHAN scheme in Meghalaya want proper wages from the central government.
The Midday Meal scheme workers are classed as volunteers, which is why they only receive a basic honorarium, that too for only 10 months per year.
The workers received Rs 900 per month from the central government and Rs 2,100 per month from the state.
“We have served voluntarily for 20 years and accepted the token from the government. From now onwards, we have to think of ourselves, we have to think of our future,” president of the Union of Cook-cum-Helper PM POSHAN Meghalaya Gina Nengnong said yesterday. “For 20 years we have walked this service, we have worked for the society through the school children. We request the Prime Minister to look at us.”
In no sense should the work be considered voluntary, she added. “The work we do every day, going to work every day, it is no longer appropriate to call it voluntary. If we are sick, do they allow us to be absent? Do they allow us to skip to go for other daily wage work? We have to go every day. If we send someone else in our place, we have to pay from our own pocket,” Nengnong said. “We want you to change, to recognise us, the cooks, to respect us if you think we are the foundation of this scheme.”
Nengnong said the union is awaiting a response from the central government, with a final call to be taken in February. If the matter is not resolved to their satisfaction, the union will take further action.
