The mid-day meal workers from Tripura organised a massive protest rally in Agartala on Thursday, July 25, against the state government’s decision to privatise the scheme. Hundreds of workers under the banner of Centre of Indian Trade unions (CITU) took part in the rally.
The workers already get a very meagre amount of Rs 1,500 as their wage. If the scheme goes to private players, about 11,000 workers who are employed in the scheme would be rendered jobless. Not only in Tripura, but mid-day meal workers across the whole country have also been fighting for their rights for a long time.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led state government has expressed their plan to handover the management of mid-day meal scheme in a number of schools under some rural Block Development areas to a private player, namely Akshaya Patra Foundation.
As per this, the meals would be cooked in a particular centre and then distributed to the schools, which itself is against the purpose of the mid-day meal scheme. As per the MDM scheme, the cooked food should be served from the school itself. Along with the scheme workers, the privatisation of the scheme would also affect the lives of petty shopkeepers who supply rice, eggs and other products to the schools since they would face a market shrink.
So far under the BJP-led government in the state, around 500 mid-day meal workers have been sacked from work without any proper reasons. The workers alleged that this is done to incorporate people who are close to the ruling party.