The Mid-Day Meal Scheme, designed to enhance school attendance and ensure basic nutrition among children, is often the only reason many underprivileged parents send their children to Government schools. At the heart of this vital initiative are the unsung cooks-daily wage workers, mostly women, who toil from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. every school day to prepare meals for hundreds of children. Shockingly, these cooks in Jammu and Kashmir have been denied even their meagre wages of Rs 900 per month, pending for over two years. This situation is not just administratively unacceptable but morally indefensible. How can a Government that ensures timely salaries for all other education department employees allow the most essential ground-level workers to languish without pay? Rs 900 a month, translating to just Rs 30 a day, is in itself an insult to the idea of fair remuneration. That even this paltry sum remains unpaid is a stark indictment of systemic apathy.
What makes this crisis even more tragic is the silence around it. These cooks-many of them single mothers or sole breadwinners-continue to report for duty, despite ill health, despite festivals like Eid passing without any monetary relief, and despite the fear of retribution from officials if they dare to protest. The cooks helping make these schools functional are denied dignity. Their exploitation must end. They feed our children while theirs go to bed hungry. Mid-day meal cooks are not asking for luxuries-only what is rightfully theirs. Their appeal for pending wages and a modest increase in monthly honorarium deserves immediate attention. With their total number relatively small, increasing their pay will not strain Government finances. A few budgetary adjustments could transform their lives and send a strong message of compassion and justice.
The School Education Department and Minister must act with urgency. Release the pending dues, reassess the remuneration structure, and recognise that no welfare scheme can succeed if its backbone-the workers-is left starving. Justice delayed is justice denied. It’s time the system honoured the silent service of these cooks with both timely payment and dignified wages.
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