In drought-hit Maharashtra, tech glitch forces teachers to fund mid-day meals

Pune: For the last four months, since the start of the academic year, teachers and headmasters across govt schools in Maharashtra have been paying from their own pockets to keep their mid-day meal programmes running. The schools, officials said, were hit by a delay in the disbursal of the PM Poshan fund, a central scheme that sponsors the meals. Even the cooks haven’t been paid salaries, teachers told TOI.In Maharashtra, the funding delay comes at a time of severe drought, across 70% of the state. Essentially, a school meal is now among the few sources of assured nutrition for tens of thousands of children as their parents struggle with falling farm incomes.A headmaster in Beed, who didn’t want to be named, said supplies of foodgrains and pulses have been coming in, but school heads have been paying for cooking fuel and vegetables since June 15. “You need more than just cauliflower or potatoes to make the meals,” he said. “You need the smaller things too, like ginger, garlic and chilli, every day. The drought has forced households to limit food options. Most of our children are only having watery dal, chutney and onion with bhakri at home. So this one school meal is the only source of good nutrition they’re now getting.”The headmaster said if he had not paid for food supplies, children would’ve dropped out of school. “But what is worse is the condition of our cooks because the funds are their only source of income. How will they live without money?”The mid-day meal became one of the most important welfare schemes in the country after evidence showed it had increased school enrollments. But the govt’s handling of the scheme has been apathetic to say the least, said Bhausaheb Chasker, a ZP teacher from Akole, Ahilyanagar. “The school heads don’t raise their voice because the administration warns them of court action. So the onus to keep the programme running is often pushed on the teachers and workers,” Chasker said.The funds issue, officials said, was triggered by delays in the adoption of the single nodal agency (SNA) SPARSH, set in place to manage direct cash transfers in centrally sponsored schemes. There were issues too in getting both central and state funds inserted into the system.“Money from the Centre for workers’ salaries has finally arrived. Centre pays Rs 600 and state pays Rs 400 per worker every month. On top of that, the state pays Rs 1,500 per worker per month extra. That also needed to be added to the system. Work is almost done and within 8-10 days the money will be disbursed. As for the funding for fuel and vegetables, that bill has been kept at the state treasury and that too will be disbursed before Dasara,” one official said.But headmasters TOI spoke to said reimbursements are often delayed. Vijay Kombe, a headmaster in Wardha, said: “For students in classes 1 to 5, the amount given is Rs 2.59 per student and for students in classes 6 to 8, it is Rs 3.71 per head. In this day and age, is that enough to buy vegetables and fuel? I pay around Rs 3000 per month to buy fuel and vegetables for 125 students in my school. We cannot put the entire responsibility on the school management committee because parents come from extremely poor backgrounds,” Kombe said.Another school official, requesting anonymity, said it was “laughable” that with the meagre amounts provided by the govt, headmasters were also expected to provide one additional nutritious item such as chikki, rajgira laddoo, apple or a banana every week.“Someone once suggested dry-fruits. Who sells dry fruits for Rs 2? Also one school gets one LPG cylinder per month. When the cylinder runs out, it’s the headmaster who has to arrange fire wood for an open stove. That’s the reality. How does govt expect one cylinder to be enough for a month? Even to book a new cylinder, we have to wait 25 days. We’re teachers who’re dealing with students from some of the poorest families in the state. It breaks our hearts if we don’t feed them,” the headmaster said.Ashok Thorat, national secretary of the Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Federation of India (MDMWFI), said workers held multiple protests to draw attention to the issue. Maharashtra employs 1.58 lakh workers under the mid-day meal scheme, which pays them Rs 83 every day for five hours of work daily. Of this, Thorat said 70% are women.“And now we can’t even pay them. All the workers come from marginalized communities. The govt keeps blaming the issue on new software so how is it that officials are getting salaries on time?” Thorat said.He added the workers have continued to come in despite the delay in salaries. “They have no choice and are scared of losing even this job. Imagine working for four months without pay, on a national scheme described as one the most successful welfare programmes in the country.You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Pune | Silver Rate in Pune | Bank Holidays in Pune | Public Holidays in Pune | Petrol Price in Pune | Diesel Price in Pune | CNG Price in Pune | LPG Price in PuneStay updated with the latest Pune news. Download the TOI App.