Midday Meal: Midday meal cooks robbed, know how exploitation is happening in schools

Minimum Wage: To free crores of children of the country from malnutrition, the cooks who prepare midday meals are being robbed. It is none other than the government system that is grinding them in the mill of exploitation. These cooks who prepare midday meals in government schools are not even given minimum wages. According to a report of Times of India, all the cooks are given less salary of Rs 7400 crore in a year. Of these 25 lakh cooks across the country, 90 percent are women. In this scheme, which is being run under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Programme, Rs 7400 crore is saved towards the salary of cooks, whereas half of its annual budget is given by the Government of India itself.

This is how entitlement in salary has been calculated

There are more than 25 lakh cooks in more than 25 lakh schools in the country. At the national level, the minimum wage is fixed at Rs 5340 every month. No state can fix wages lower than this. According to minimum wage, the annual wage of more than 25 lakh cooks will be Rs 13,439 crore. At present, according to the fixed rate, about Rs 6,065 crore is given as wages to the cooks. In this way approximately Rs 7,400 crore is given less.

Know how much midday meal cooks get

60 percent of the honorarium received by the cooks has to be given to the Government of India. In some states it is 90 percent. Since 2009, the monthly honorarium for cooks has been fixed at Rs 1,000 per month. There is a provision of Rs 1592 crore in the midday meal budget by the Government of India. Whereas according to the minimum wage, the Government of India should give a share of Rs 8,497 crore towards the honorarium of cooks. In this way, the Government of India also gives Rs 6900 crore less to the cooks as minimum wage. It may be noted that in the budget of 2024-25, there is a provision of Rs 12,467 crore for midday meal by the Government of India.

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