📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Kirti periodical
Jobs & Career
Amritsar Protest Calls for Doubling Honorariums of Mid‑Day Meal and ASHA Workers
✍️ Amar Ujala · Amritsar
🗓 02 Oct 2026, 10:41 PM
👁 15
Workers delivering mid‑day meals and ASHA staff gathered in Amritsar demanding that their honorariums be increased two‑fold.
A group of mid‑day meal providers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) staged a protest in Amritsar on Thursday, urging the state government to double the honorariums they receive for their services. The demonstrators, many of whom are frontline workers in schools and rural health centres, carried placards and voiced concerns that current payments are insufficient to meet rising living costs.
Organisers of the rally said the existing stipend, set several years ago, has not been revised to reflect inflation or the expanded responsibilities of the workers. They appealed to the Punjab administration to review the budget allocation for the Mid‑Day Meal Scheme and the National Health Mission, and to issue an immediate revision.
Local authorities acknowledged the protest and indicated that the matter would be discussed in an upcoming departmental meeting. No official response on a timeline for any pay revision has been provided yet.
The demonstration remained peaceful, with participants dispersing after a few hours once they had conveyed their demands to officials present at the venue.
The issue highlights broader concerns across the state about the remuneration of essential service workers, who play a critical role in child nutrition and primary health care.
Organisers of the rally said the existing stipend, set several years ago, has not been revised to reflect inflation or the expanded responsibilities of the workers. They appealed to the Punjab administration to review the budget allocation for the Mid‑Day Meal Scheme and the National Health Mission, and to issue an immediate revision.
Local authorities acknowledged the protest and indicated that the matter would be discussed in an upcoming departmental meeting. No official response on a timeline for any pay revision has been provided yet.
The demonstration remained peaceful, with participants dispersing after a few hours once they had conveyed their demands to officials present at the venue.
The issue highlights broader concerns across the state about the remuneration of essential service workers, who play a critical role in child nutrition and primary health care.