Acceding to a long-standing demand of around 45,000 cook-cum-helpers of the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme in government, government-aided primary and upper primary schools of the state, the School Education Department has increased the annual honorarium to these helpers from Rs 17,000 to Rs 22,000 per annum.
More than 80 per cent of cook-cum-helpers for the scheme are Women and they were being paid Rs 1,700 per month for 10 months a
year from May 1, 2021.
This payment has now been increased to Rs 2,200 per month, 10 months a year. As there is no cooking of meal in the schools during summer (June) and winter (December) vacations, the helpers are not paid for this period.
The scheme guarantees one meal for at least 200 days in a year to all 16,88,769 students in government, government-aided primary and elementary schools in the state under Samagra Shiksha, a programme of the Ministry of Human resource development. The helpers work in about 19,680 government and government-aided schools in the state.