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Who will feed UP's mid-day meal cooks? They have not been paid since March

Over 90% of them are women who are too poor to afford even a single meal

Mid-day meal cooks, Mid-day meal
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Kesar serving food to students in Barara’s Primary School-1, Agra

Nitin Kumar Agra
“We never forget to put food in students' plates but the government never remembers to do the same for us,” says Kiran Devi as she picks up a bowl of potato-soya curry to feed the students sitting under a banyan tree in Barara’s Primary School-1, Agra. Kiran Devi, 55, is a cook-cum-helper (CCH) under the mid-day meal scheme (now, Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman).


“It was March when I last received any honorarium,” she says. “We are called <bhojan matas> (mothers who provide food) but we have no money to feed ourselves.” The promise of Rs 1,000 as honorarium