Uttarakhand Election 2022: Facing low pay, discrimination, mid-day meal cooks ask if their votes count

NEW DELHI: Lalita is 32 years old now. When she joined as a mid-day meal worker, or bhojan mata, at a primary school in Laksar, Haridwar, Uttarakhand, in 2016, her husband had just passed away leaving her the sole earning member of the family.

She used to receive Rs 1,500 per month from the school at the time and with that, took care of her three children and in-laws. Over the next six years, her “honorarium” – for, mid-day meal cooks are not considered employees of the state – was raised twice. The most recent hike was in December 2021, to the paltry sum of Rs 3,000.

“In this time of rising prices, how do we take care of ourselves with this salary? In Rs 3,000, I have to send children to school, buy clothes, food, medicines for them. There are my expenses and that of my families, including mother-in-law and father-in-law,” said Lalita.

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She’s not alone. Uttarakhand’s mid-day meal workers are increasingly forced to take over other work such as cleaning, opening and closing the schools, and function as full-time cooks for teachers to make ends meet. They have been campaigning for years to have their jobs regularised and their wages raised. For context, Puducherry gives mid-day meal workers a salary of Rs 21,000; Tamil Nadu Rs 12,000 and Kerala Rs 9,000.

Along with the exploitation, bhojan matas face discrimination as well. The incident of Sunita Devi, a dalit bhojan mata, getting fired after upper caste students refused to eat the food she cooked, was just one of numerous cases.

Ahead of the elections, in December, hundreds of mid-day meal workers protested for better pay. “We are also citizens of this country. Do we not vote?” asked Lalita. “It’s not like there are only a few bhojan matas or that we don’t collectively vote. Is it that they don’t need our votes, that they are not even concerned about our pleas?” Their most abiding demand is regularisation of their jobs. Uttarakhand votes on February 14, along with Goa and Uttar Pradesh.

Exploited for years

Once mid-day-meal cooks made as little as Rs 250 in a month. Monthly income from it rose to Rs 1,500 only in 2015, said Bhukanpu.

Apart from scattered protests, there was little concerted effort to improve their condition until 2019 when the bhojan matas unionised under the Pragatisheel Bhojan Matha Sangathan.

Registered in 2019, the sangathan helped bring more awareness to the community. The sangathan stepped up to represent bhojan matas when, during the COVID-19-induced lockdown, there was talk of letting them go.

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Through October 2021 to December 2021, hundreds of mid-day meal workers protested at the residence of the chief minister, BJP’s Pushkar Singh Dhami, demanding a raise. They were met with lathis.

“From December, it has increased by Rs 1,000 but we had to suffer a lot. The police beat us up and arrested a lot of us during the protest,” said Tushi Arya, a bhojan mata in Nainital district, Uttarakhand. “Our education minister, during the lockdown, told us that our salaries will be increased to Rs 5,000. No one should give hope like that if they do not plan to fulfill it.”

In July 2021, Uttarakhand education minister Arvind Pandey had promised mid-day meal workers that their salaries would be increased to Rs 5,000. However, when the increase was announced, it was only Rs 3,000.

“Nothing happens with this Rs 3,000. I can fill the gas cylinder, buy one kilogram of dal, one litre of oil and Rs 1,000 does not even reach home,” said Arya.

Extra work

Although their duties are limited to cooking the mid-day meal and cleaning utensils, school teachers force workers to do cleaning work at their home and in their fields.

Those who refuse are met with threats of expulsion.

“In schools, they are forced to sweep and clean tiles, do the watchman’s job of closing and opening and also work in the kitchen gardens,” said Rajani Joshi, general secretary of Pragatisheel Bhojan Mata Sangathan.

“Some teachers also make them work in their own homes with threats of expulsion if they fail to comply. When there is a teacher’s retirement party, they have to cook. They are forced to do all such work for which they are not given any money,” said Joshi.

Uttarakhand Election 2022: Bhojan matas protesting for salary increase

In many schools, bhojan matas, whose work should be over within three hours, are forced to stay till the school is closed.

“So, for only Rs 3,000 they are being forced to do the work of four people. One is the job of the bhojan mata, then gardener, then sweeper then watchman. Some schools even make them clean toilets also,” said Joshi.

Some bhojan matas said that the practice of forcing them to do other jobs increased after 2018 when they started agitating for increased pay.

“They [schools] tell us that it is a written order but when we ask them to show the written order they don’t show it. Now we have to look after the kitchen garden. Earlier, students used to wash their plates but since 2018, even that work is on us,” said Arya.

“In many schools, there are four bhojan matas – three will make food and one will do office work and the salary will be the same for everyone,” said Joshi.

Delayed payments

At many schools, salaries come four-five months late.

“They just say that the money has not come from the top,” said Lalita. “A bhojan mata In Chidyapur village, a widow with two small children, cried to us saying that her children are sick and she has been borrowing money as the payment is delayed.”

The workers blame the schools, allege corruption and pilferage from the mid-day meal funds.

“In many places, they don’t get paid on time. In many places, they have not given even one year’s salary. The money is taken by the teachers or when the teachers in charge of mid-day meals change, they say the money is with the previous teacher. We try to represent those with the union and get them their money on time but there are many who are unable to reach us,” said Joshi.

Caste discrimination on the job

While Sunita Devi’s case drew the spotlight, bhojan matas in villages said caste-based discrimination is routine.

“In Kumaon, caste issues are common. In those places, if the cook is a dalit or a Muslim they won’t eat. If the village is of Thakurs, only Thakurs are allowed to cook there. This is a persistent issue in the villages in the mountains,” said Joshi.

They said that similar cases of discrimination also happened to women on their menstrual cycle.

“Menstruating women are not allowed to cook because it is considered ‘impure’. This is also true for mountainous areas of Garhwal. Because of this, they lose Rs 250-300 from their pay because they are paid based on their daily work,” said Joshi.

Bhojan matas are also in charge of collecting firewood in schools that rely on traditional cooking, a dangerous job in the mountains. “In many Uttarakhand schools, there is no gas. The bhojan matas have to collect firewood from the jungle where they risk running into wild animals. During the rains, the firewood often gets wet and that makes it extra difficult to cook,” said Joshi.

Need to be regularised

“Our biggest need is that the bhojan matas be regularised. They have been working for government schools for decades and should be made permanent with other facilities including provident fund,” said Joshi.

“No government has done anything for us so far,” said Lalita. “If there was at least some consideration for us, we wouldn’t have had to hit the roads. Even those bhojan matas whose families are entirely dependent on their honoraria had gone for protests. No government has even seen or thought of us.”