BALOD: Two women mid-day meal cooks have died in Chhattisgarh while undergoing treatment in hospitals after their health deteriorated during the month-long protest by cooks demanding a hike in their honorarium, an association and family members said on Wednesday.
However, the state government denied direct connection of the deaths with the agitation by mid-day meal cooks which entered 31st day on Wednesday.
While mid-day meal cook Rukhmani Sinha of Balod district died on January 26 at a hospital in adjoining Rajnandgaon district, another woman working under the government-run food scheme, Dulari Bai Yadav, a resident of Bemetara district, died at a hospital in Bhilai town of Durg district in the wee hours the same day, their family members and an association representing the agitators said.
Since December 29, thousands of mid-day meal cooks, mostly women, have been staging sit-in protest at Tuta Dharna Sthala in Nava Raipur Atal Nagar, demanding a hike in their daily wages from Rs 66 to over Rs 400.
These cooks, the key workforce behind one of the government's ambitious nutrition schemes, mid-day meal, have been protesting under the banner of the 'Chhattisgarh School Madhyanh Bhojan Rasoiya Sanyukta Sangh' (CSMBRSS).
Under the scheme, free, hot-cooked meals are provided to children in government and government-aided schools studying in primary and upper primary classes.
Rukhmani Sinha's son-in-law Mukesh Kumar Sinha told PTI on Wednesday that her mother-in-law, a resident of Kusumkasa village in Balod district, took part in the protest in Raipur from January 20 to 23 and returned home on January 24 and complained of health-related complications.
She was admitted to the Balod district hospital in the early hours of January 25 and later referred to the Rajnandgaon Medical College and Hospital, where she died on January 26 afternoon, he said.
Rukhmani Sinha, who was in her late 40s, was suffering from blood pressure-related issues, the relative informed.
Radhika Sahu, head of the Berla block unit of the cooks' association (Rasoiya Sanyukta Sangh), said Dulari Bai Yadav, who was in her mid 50s, used to prepare mid-day meal for students at a primary school in Saldha-Khamariya village under Berla block in Bemetara district.
She said Yadav had intermittently participated in the agitation since December 29 and she fell ill on January 24 at the protest site following which she was admitted to Bhilai's Shankaracharya Hospital, where she died in the wee hours of January 26.
Meanwhile, the association state president Ramraj Kashyap alleged that despite 31 days of agitation, the government has not taken a positive decision on the cooks' demands and claimed the protesters' condition continued to deteriorate.
However, the state government denied any direct link between the two deaths and the protest.
In a statement, the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) said representatives of the protesting cooks held discussions with senior officials, including the director and secretary (School Education Department), during which the government informed them of a decision to raise the honorarium by 25 per cent, amounting to Rs 500 (hike of around 17 Rs per day), and called for an end to the stir.
The DPI said Sinha had attended the protest on January 20 and 21 but later returned home, where she fell ill and was admitted to a government hospital, and that Yadav was already suffering from a serious illness and she was admitted at Shankaracharya hospital Bhilai where she died.
In both cases, the deaths had no direct connection with the ongoing protest, it said.
The state government said it remains sensitive to health, safety and welfare of all mid-day meal cooks and continues to take necessary steps in their interest.
