Beed: Agitated by the Maharashtra government's decision to outsource school meals to centralised kitchens, mid-day meal workers launched an indefinite sit-in protest outside the Beed district collectorate on Monday. Union leaders claimed the move would render around 1.53 lakh women workers jobless across the state.
Union leader Dr Ashok Thorat said the workers primarily comprised more than 1.53 lakh needy women and men from marginalised backgrounds, including widows, abandoned women, divorcees, Dalits, OBCs and minorities.
The workers are required to perform multiple duties in schools for six hours a day, from 9am to 3pm. In return, they receive a monthly honorarium of just ₹2,500, or approximately ₹83 per day. The union alleged that this was lower than the remuneration offered in any other government sector in Maharashtra and that payments were rarely disbursed on time.
Through a Government Resolution (GR) issued on October 6, 2026, the state government decided to hand over meal preparation to centralised kitchens. Calling it a policy that favours large capitalist organisations at the expense of students' health, protesters raised concerns over delays in transporting meals, an increased risk of food poisoning and the lack of hot, freshly cooked, protein-rich food for children.
They alleged that private entities, driven by profit, could compromise meal quality, resulting in food that children might refuse to eat. The union also claimed that the policy violated Supreme Court directives mandating the provision of hot, fresh and hygienic meals to schoolchildren within stipulated timings.
The protesters demanded the immediate rollback of the centralised kitchen policy, the enforcement of minimum wages for mid-day meal workers, and the disbursement of the ₹1,000 monthly honorarium hike approved on June 5, 2024, along with all pending arrears.
Mohan Owhal, Mira Shinde, Ashok Popale, Shivdas Jagtap, Vinayak Poul, Balaji Taur, Ashok Katkhade, Madhukar Kadam, Baliram Waghmare and Savitrabai Mule were among the union members who participated in the protest.
