Price hike and the mid-day meal scheme

The mid-day meal scheme has been privatised and the price hike has hit concerned parties

The privatisation of the mid-day meal scheme in the State, which was done last year, is not boding well with the State Mid-Day Meal Karmika Sangham. Speaking to the Hans India on Monday, the General Secretary of the Sanbham, K Swaroopa Rani said that government considers those serving for midday meal scheme as part-time workers who work two hours a day.

“In reality, apart from cooking, the workers perform chores like cleaning the kitchen, arranging LPG, vegetables, serving food, and cleaning the utensils. The actual duration of their work extends beyond the schedule fixed by the government,” she said.

Responding to the privatisation of the mid-day meal scheme, Swaroopa Rani said that the State government, in the name of streamlining and maintaining quality of the food was exploring all possibilities to privatise the service with commercial interests, which was highly deplorable.

“The prospect of privatisation of the scheme was being encouraged by the government as it was not in a situation to pay minimum wages to the workers,” she said. In this regard, the government had allocated 2.8 acre land near Mangalagiri and entrusted the duty of supplying midday meals to 10,000 students for ISKCON.

As of now, the foundation stone was laid by the AP Assembly Speaker Kodela Siva Prasad Rao recently, which will start feeding the children from June. This move will definitely oust the services of 12,000 mid-day meal workers in Amaravati capital region, she said.

Swaroopa Rani said that State Government has already handed over the responsibility of providing food to students in Kakinada, Visakhapatnam and Tirupati for ISKCON. Citing instances of protests by students and parents against the serving of low-quality food by agencies like ISKCON, she said that NGOs function on a centralised model, which doesn't serve egg in their menu.

“The food was cooked at a single place, packed and transported to schools. Packed food provided by these NGOs to the children was poor in nutritive value and taste. The scheme should not be privatised to ensure access to fresh and nutritious food to students,” she observed.

Meanwhile, the State Government has issued a GO on February 25 to hike 20 paise for primary class students and 40 paise for higher class students to the actual amount of Rs 4.60 paise towards each student after taking the agitations staged by the workers in to consideration.

“Measures should be taken by the government in consider the long pending demands of the workers, which includes issuing identity cards, two cotton saris for each worker per year, job security and allocation of adequate budget,” she said.