HYDERABAD: The Mid-Day Meal (MDM) workers in Telangana, who are among the lowest paid in the State, are gearing up to launch a massive protest seeking fulfilment of their various demands. The MDM workers will soon hold ‘Chalo Hyderabad’ dharna in all districts as their demands put forth to the government on multiple occasions failed to yield any result.
The workers are getting a monthly honorarium of Rs 1000 for the last 12 years. They urge the government to increase the wages as surviving with a meagre amount of Rs 1000 is impossible.Over 83,000 MDM workers across the state, working since 2002, are yet to get due recognition. They demand that their wages be fixed at Rs 21,000 per month or at least pay them according to the wages recommended by the Union government. The workers also demand they be given health cards, health insurance ESI, PF among other facilities.
The MDM workers say serving mid-day meal to the students is a challenging task as the government only provides rice. Talking about her struggles, Rajeshwari , a mid-day meal worker from Mancherial said,”The State government is making tall claims over the success of the scheme but it is providing nothing apart from rice. We have to purchase all other things on our own, the bill of which the government will clear later. Even we have to buy the cylinder without subsidy, as the agency counts us as a commercial user. The government is not paying the cylinder charges,” she said.
“Providing eggs in mid-day meals is another challenge. Eggs should be provided thrice in a week as per the menu and the government is providing only Rs 4 for egg but in the market, an egg costs Rs 5.50. We had requested the government to provide us eggs as being given to Anganwadis. But, our request fell on deaf ears,” said S Rama, a MDM worker.Unable to bear the expenses, many MDM workers are forced to discontinue their work but most of them are still hoping that their services will be regularised.