Around 105 self-help groups (SHGs) supplying meals to school students across the State have not been paid their dues for the past four months. With payments not forthcoming, the aggrieved groups had no other option but to come on the streets and protest. It appears that the leadership change and an administrative reshuffle at the Education Department are taking their own sweet time to familiarize themselves with the system that has been running seamlessly for several years.
It’s a shame that the SHGs, which are taking the responsibility of supplying meals to schools round the year, haven’t been paid a paisa since the new academic year has started. While government proudly announces festive bonanzas in the form of releasing early salaries ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi or Christmas, these meal providers have been completely marginalized and ignored.
The question that needs to be asked: What are the grounds behind holding back payments for four months? Is there another quality check by the new director of education? Or is anyone scouting for reasons to shut the door on these SHGs? All the goodwill that the government is trying to create among people in terms of sops, not forgetting the recent 50 per cent rebate on road tax, will be undone with instances like these.
There is a responsibility that these SHGs shoulder of supplying mid-day meals round the year, that too at subsidised rates. A meal provider is paid Rs 6.11 per child for the primary section and Rs 7.26 per child for the upper section. This cost is all-inclusive “ raw material, bread, labour and transport. The SHGs are not insulated from any inflationary spikes either, like the recent one where prices of vegetables hit the roof after monsoon flooding in Belagavi and several parts of Maharashtra. With stringent checks and balances in places, there is no way the SHGs can cut corners.
Those responsible for holding back payments should be held responsible and the education department must come out with answers. If there are new mechanisms that are being tested, then the meal providers, schools and even parents should be on board. No single authority can take unilateral decisions and jeopardize a smooth-running system unless there is a strong reason to justify that action. Who holds the responsibility if school children who were depending on these meals had to go hungry if there was a break in service over this non-payment?
There were ambitious plans of roping in Akshay Patra to manage and take-over mid-day meals in the State during the Manohar Parrikar regime. But in sharp contrast, the treatment given to our providers is pathetic, to say the least. For generations together, Goan families are known for their nutritious home-grown food and healthy upbringing of children. Why are local meal providers subjected to such kind of treatment?
