New Delhi: More than 29,000 mid-day meal workers in Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Haryana have not been paid their meagre honorarium for several months now. Many of these workers are widowed women, whose families are dependent on this money.
According to The Hindu, this sort of delay in honorarium payment is sadly not uncommon. “In 2021, honorarium for ten months was released after the workers went on a strike. The things improved slightly last year with a delay of two-three months, but again it has been six months now,” Murti Devi, Gurugram district president of the Mid-day Meal Workers Union, Haryana, told the newspaper.
Last year, after demands from workers and unions, the government increased the monthly honorarium to Rs 7,000 (up from Rs 3,500). However, this increase means nothing if the payments are not made.
Of the total amount per cook, Rs 600 is contributed by the Union government and Rs 6,400 by the state government.
Lalita, a mid-day meal cook at a government school in Haryana, told The Tribune in March, “I am yet to get the honorarium for five months and it is getting hard to meet the house expenses. We have requested the officials to get the remuneration released and also submitted memorandums, but we are yet to get the money. There are many mid-day meal workers who are widows and are the only breadwinners in the family and it is getting very difficult for them.”
“We not only cook, but also serve and clean utensils. We also have bills to pay and buy groceries for our house. The shopkeepers have started asking us to clear the previous dues,” another cook, Sonia, told the newspaper.
In this financial year’s budget, the Haryana government has increased the amount allocated for the mid-day meal by over 58%, The Indian Express reported. Rs 661 crore has been set aside for the scheme, up from Rs 384 crore last year. However, it remains to be seen whether these means that dues will be cleared and future honorarium payments will be made on time.