The midday meal (Bisi Oota) workers in Karnataka declared an indefinite strike and staged a protest at Bengaluru's Freedom Park under the aegis of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU). Due to this protest on Monday, October 30, the supply of midday meals to school students was affected in the Koppal and Kolar districts.
Around 1,19,000 midday meal workers serve over 55,80,000 students regularly. The strike is being organised district-wise in Bengaluru, as per a report by The New Indian Express.
Over 450 workers from Koppal and Kolar were in the city registering their protests on Monday, due to which food could not be served to students there. Similarly, today, October 31, workers from Bagalkot will protest and no food will be served to schools in the district.
Despite several appeals and protests since December 2022, the workers reportedly still have long-pending demands. S Varalakshmi, State President of the Akshara Dasoha Naukarara Sangha, said, “Until Diwali, workers from each district will come and protest at Freedom Park. If the government still does not fulfil our demands, the entire state’s midday meal workers will stop their work after the festival.”
“The government wants to send only junior officers to hear our problems, but nothing materialises post those discussions,” she added. Their demands include a pension of Rs 1 lakh to those who were laid off on reaching 60 years of age, and a compensation of Rs 25 lakh in case of a death at the workplace, as per TNIE.
The protesters want the proposed hike in salary under the new budget to be implemented from January 2023 and that they be duly compensated in their latest salaries. They also want the government to recognise them under the 45th and 46th Indian Labour Laws till the Bisi Oota scheme is established and to appoint cooks as Group D workers in schools.
