Mid-day Meal Workers Protest Against Privatisation of the Scheme in Tripura

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, mid-day meal workers across the whole country have 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-say 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.

Also read: Mid-Day Meal Workers Protest in AP; Demand Termination of Contract With Akshaya Patra

Along with the privatisation of MDM scheme, the government has also decided to hand over 20 state-run schools to ISKCON- a religious charitable trust- to run them.

“The council of ministers in its meeting decided to hand over 20 schools including the closed 13 schools and seven schools from 147 schools, which have maximum 10 students to the authorities of International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), who have agreed to provide quality education in those schools”, Ratan Lal Nath, minister of school education and higher education in the state, told a press conference.

The minister said the BJP-Indigenous People’s Front of Tripura (IPFT) government which came to power in the state last year was trying to “reform” the education system in the state.

“Initially, they (ISKCON) opted for 53 schools but we have decided to give them 20 schools for five years, of which 7 in West Tripura district, one in Gomati district, two in Khowai district, three in Sepahijala district and seven in South Tripura district, would be handed over to them. They have promised us that they will impart quality education”, the education minister said.

Soon after the government’s decision, the leader of Opposition in the Assembly and former Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said in a press statement, “Both the decisions of the government are against the positive and significant achievements attained by long-drawn arduous glorious struggles of the education-loving people of Tripura for ceaseless expansion of education to ensure the birthright of education…”

Tripura has 4,389 government and government-aided schools.

Sarkar also requested the Biplab Deb government to roll back the decisions and ensure public education for all, saying that privatising public schools would deprive students from poorer sections a chance to study in them.

Mid day meal by Newsclick on Scribd

The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has also come up against the government’s move. SFI, in a press statement, said that the nutritious mid-day meal cooked in government schools will be stopped if the schools are being privatised. The press statement said, “Instead, vegetarian food will be supplied to various schools through a company called Akshaya Patra. As a result, some of the usual questions were raised among the educated community and students. When this decision is implemented, certain school students will be deprived of nutritious protein rich foods.”

“The Tripura government has adopted various methods to extend the vision of privatisation in the field of education. In Tripura, the possibility of collapse of all the structures of public education will be broken by privatising tomorrow. The government wants to bring down a number of attacks on education, nutrition and employment, by handing over the mid-day meal scheme to private sector. SFI strongly condemns this decision of BJP-IPFT government and will organise protest against the privatization policy,” the statement added.

Also read: Drinking Water Crisis in Karnataka Persists, Forces Schools in Udupi to Stall Mid-Day Meal Scheme