BENGALURU: Seventy-three-year-old Nanjundappa from a slum in Ullal Upanagara in Bengaluru West is unsure of his next meal. He had to give up selling flowers years ago, which till then had been his main source of livelihood, due to poor sight. The old age pension stopped some months ago.
“Me and my wife make incense sticks so that we do not go to bed hungry,’’ he said while squatting on the floor and holding a banner urging the Bengaluru Mayor to resume mid-day meals for retired elderly persons of the unorganised sector on BBMP premises on Wednesday.
Seventy-three-year-old Lata from Ambedkar Nagar in Bengaluru East says she earns a living by keeping a watch on footwear at a temple. Lata, who is president of the Akhila Karnataka Vayovrudhara Okkoota (AIKYATA), said she is forced to do such jobs at this age in the absence of any social and food security schemes. She recollected that due to a campaign by AIKYATA, BBMP had implemented free mid-day meal scheme for 12,000 retired workers from the unorganised sector in 2008. The scheme, however, stopped in 2012.
In 2016, corporators, responding to memoranda, had set aside `4 crore to provide mid-day meals to elderly unorganised sector workers. But with the money remaining unspent, hundreds of retired workers on Wednesday braved the rains and staged a protest urging the civic body to continue mid-day meals.
“Unlike former CM B S Yeddyurappa, who ordered the police to lathicharge us, I am sure that this government, led by CM Kumaraswamy, will do something for us,’’ Lata said. South India Federation of Trade Unions president Sebastian Devaraj asked, “When a MLA gets pension after completing five years, why not these retired workers ...?”