Karnataka mid-day meal workers protest, stop cooking meals in schools

Bangalore: Her three-year-old daughter has only eaten fruit jam in the past three days. The food supply she carried from back home in Bijapur is over. Money to splurge on food is scarce for this young mother from North Karnataka. "The nights are cold, we sleep here in the open, answer nature's call in that corner," she says pointing to a corner in Bangalore's Freedom Park. But Kausar, a mid-day meal worker, makes it clear that she will not return home until she gets some kind of assurance from the government to make the lives of her and thousands of mid-day meal workers in the state better.

Another woman, Jayamma, shows the burn marks on both her arms, face and waist; a pressure cooker burst into her face one afternoon while she cooked for children at a government school kitchen in Hassan. Jayamma has not received any aid for her treatment from the authorities. Scared for life, like Jayamma, there are women with fractured hands, broken knee, and those who've lost their fingers - all incurred in kitchens of government and aided schools in Karnataka - are camping at Freedom Park since Monday.

Thousands of mid-day meal workers, mostly women have come to Bangalore from 26 districts of Karnataka to stage an indefinite protest. They are demanding better working conditions. Their current pay or honorarium as it is called is just Rs 1,000 per month. "We're not demanding Rs 10,000 or Rs 15,000. All we want is the basic living wage with a small increase in the salary," says S Varalakshmi, President of Karnataka Rajya Akshara Dasoha Naukara Sangha.

The workers are warning of a mass hunger strike if the government does not meet their demands. There are more than 150 women who have become victims of cylinder bursts while cooking in schools. They continue to work as they hail from poor families. Many of them are widows," says Varalakshmi

The workers have stopped cooking meals in the government and aided schools and this is likely to impact the mid-day meal programme in Karnataka. There are more than 67 lakh children in government and aided schools who depend on these workers for their mid-day meals. The mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka, called the Akshara Dasoha Scheme was introduced in 2001. However, the protest will not affect those studying in government schools in Bangalore's city limits as NGOs handle the mid-day meal programme here.

"Women are working for very less wages and have no proper cooking facilities," says Varalakshmi. Not just that, the workers don't even get maternity leaves, she adds.

The leaders on Thursday met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who assured them that the issue will be tabled in the next Assembly session. But that's just not enough for these women who say they will not bow down until the Chief Minister gives them a written assurance.