CHENNAI: Demanding that the government fulfil their concerns, including a monthly pension, the Tamil Nadu Nutritious Meal Employees' Association has announced a state-wide protest at all district headquarters on January 12 and subsequently confirmed that noon meal centres will be shut down from January 20.
The Association held a state executive committee meeting recently with all office bearers across the State. During the meeting, it was discussed that the demands of the noon-meal workers had not been met by the government, and they have been struggling to make ends meet for a long time.
The demands of the association include implementation of time-scale pay, Rs 5 lakh to noon meal workers after retirement, and a monthly pension of Rs 9,000 to workers as an aid to family members.
We had been facing issues and urging the government to fulfil basic demands. However, we have not been met with a satisfactory response from the governmentA member of the association
Tamil Nadu takes immense pride in introducing noon-meal to school children, which ultimately led to higher school enrolment and reduced drop out over the years. Though the initiative is counted as one of the noble schemes that truly empowers those from economically weaker backgrounds, the plight of those cooking these meals for children is quite bleak.
Since the 'nutritious meal programme' was introduced in 1982, there are 1.43 lakh noon-meal centres currently operating across Tamil Nadu.
To operate these centres and to ensure the food is served to school children on time, the Department of Social Welfare and Women Empowerment has sanctioned around 1.50 lakh posts.
However, several noon-meal cooks and organisers speaking to DT Next alleged that at present, there are only 40,000 staff working in the noon-meal scheme, and the high number of vacancies is forcing them to take up other work for a meagre pay.