Arun Jailtley says his government ‘missed’ adding MDM workers in the latest announcement on increase in remuneration of anganwadi and ASHA workers.

More than fifteen thousand Mid Day Meal Workers assembled at Parliament Street today,(on 19 November 2018) at the call of Mid Day Meal Workers’ federations affiliated to the central trade unions.  Workers from Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, HP, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, MP, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Telangana, UP, Uttarakhand and West Bengal shouted anti BJP-NDA-Modi slogans and demanded immediate increase in their remuneration.

The presidium of the meeting consisted of Dr.B V Vijayalakshmi(AITUC), Kanta Mahant (CITU) and Sohila Gupta (AICCTU). From the central trade Unions Amarjeet Kaur (AITUC), A R Sindhu (CITU), Geeta Mandal (AICCTU), M Chaurasia( AIUTUC), Ujjaini (INTUC)and Ashok Ghosh (UTUC) addressed the gathering. A R Sindhu said that the scheme workers are contributing labour worth rupees one lakh crore to the development of the nation and our fight is a struggle to get this accounted. She called upon the mid day meal workers to make the national general strike on 8-9 January 2019 a grand success.  D Raja, MP and Sai Balaji, JNUSU president also addressed the gathering.

Jaibhagawan, General Secretary, MDMWFI (CITU) narrated the governments’ efforts to privatise the scheme and the resistance against it. The central government is not even considering the promise made by the HRD Ministry in the 45^th Indian Labour Conference to increase the remuneration to Rs.3000 per month. When the government increased the remuneration of anganwadi and ASHA workers they just ignored the 26 lakh mid day meal workers and discriminated against them, he said. He also narrated different struggles of the mid day meal workers in different states and the achievements of increased remuneration, uniform, and medical treatment in case of accidents etc.