According to official information, about 65 per cent of India’s 24.95 lakh cook-cum-helpers, who’re employed below the mid-day meal scheme, now often called PM Poshan, are paid lower than Rs 2,000 per 30 days. is completed.
In eight states and three union territories, the month-to-month wage for this workforce has remained stagnant at Rs 1,000 since 2009, whereas a number of parliamentary committees have beneficial will increase over time.
In UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Odisha, which collectively account for 29.72 per cent of noon meal staff, month-to-month funds have seen a marginal improve over time, however lower than Rs 2,000, as per information. present.
Meanwhile, the southern states and union territories of Puducherry are miles forward by way of month-to-month funds with Tamil Nadu and Kerala paying as much as Rs 21,000, Rs 12,000 and Rs 9,000, respectively, on a month-to-month foundation to cooks and helpers who need to pay Rs. Also known as CCH. ,
cooking price overview
After repackaging the mid-day meal scheme as PM POSHAN, the Center additionally introduced that it’ll overview the system to calculate the cooking price per little one. However, there aren’t any rapid plans to revisit the month-to-month wages of these serving to to implement the scheme.
According to a senior central authorities official, the training ministry had advocated a hike of Rs 2,000 in salaries in 2018 and 2020, however the proposals have been rejected by the finance ministry, saying states ought to prime up the pay. . Based on wants and calls for. This can be the inventory response of the Ministry of Education when the states demand a rise within the honorarium of the CCH.
“The cooks and helpers are classified as honorary workers who have come forward to provide social services. They are not considered laborers and as a result, laws on minimum wages are not applicable to them,” the official stated. Under PM Poshan, the fee to cooks and staff is split by the Center with the states and legislatures within the ratio of 60:40 for the Union Territories.
In March, a standing committee of the Rajya Sabha in its report “noted the disparity in the honorarium paid to cook-cum-assistants by different states and recommended that the department be given a framework to fix the honorarium to be paid to cooks”. A standard system needs to be developed. Equality needs to be maintained between completely different states.” The same advice was additionally made by one other Standing Committee of Rajya Sabha in 2020.
Over the years, the difficulty of irregular funds to CCH has additionally come to the fore at common intervals. During the complete 2021, round 3.93 lakh CCHs weren’t paid in Uttar Pradesh, a message was despatched to state officers from the PM Potion wing of the training ministry final month.
In its response on November 30, the UP Mid Day Meal Authority stated it had obtained the Centre’s share in May with the situation that the cash must be paid by Single Nodal Agency (SNA) accounts below the brand new Public Financial Management System. . The UP authorities opened an SNA account with SBI, saying on September 21 that it will take three to 4 months to activate the account.
Later, the state requested the Center to free it from the brand new system, which it obtained for the present yr. Subsequently, it was additional delayed on the stage of the state finance division, the UP MDM authority stated.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
