THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The new lunch menu may be a tasty meal for school children. However, those making it are having a bitter experience, thanks to unfulfilled government promises.
The noon meal workers from prominent unions across the state are in despair due to work overload and untimely disbursement of salaries. As per the present rule in the state, one cook has to prepare food for 500 students, which is already a tedious task.
Now, the new menu includes dishes that require more effort for preparation, like tomato rice, lemon rice, leafy vegetable ‘thoran’, cauliflower dishes and soya, a gargantuan task in view of the limited number of hands.
INTUC’s School Pachaka Thozhilali Congress state general secretary Habeeb Sait suggested reducing the cook-to-student ratio or appointing additional cooks as a solution.
“Members of different trade unions had a meeting with Education Minister V Sivankutty on April 29, in which he said all the concerns will be addressed. Nothing happened after that,” he alleged, adding that many of the workers are elderly citizens and are unable to buy medicines for themselves.
“We had to contact multiple people for our salary for June, which we got by August 1,” said S Shakunthala, School Pachaka Thozhilali Sanghadana (HMS) state president, adding that many are yet to receive it.
Asserting that the preparation of the new menu by noon with a limited workforce is extremely difficult, she said the current daily wage of Rs 600 is insufficient to meet their daily expenses.
“However, we will not abstain from work in protest, as we know many small bellies in our schools will go hungry,” she said, mentioning the strike her union is organising on August 9 in Thiruvananthapuram.
The story is the same for Left-affiliated unions. AITUC’s School Pachaka Thozhilali Union general secretary P G Mohanan said, “Though the menu is attractive, it is ending up as a tiring task for us. Also, though we are included in the schedule for minimum wages in 2013 and notified in 2016, the officials concerned cite irrelevant reasons to not implement it.”
Devi K V, the state general secretary of Kerala State School Pachaka Thozhilali Federation (CITU) said, “Though we welcome the menu, it is causing a lot of practical issues. However, we appreciate the Left government’s efforts, as it provides the highest wages in the country.”
The government cited non-allocation of Central funds as the reason for the workers’ issues.