IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/devpol/v42y2024i4ne12774.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Underpaid, undervalued, and overworked: The working conditions of cooks in India's school lunch programme

Author

Listed:
  • Lana Whittaker

Abstract

Motivation School feeding programmes employ more than 4 million people globally and have the potential to contribute to the realization of multiple Sustainable Development Goals, including decent work and reducing inequalities. However, the working conditions and experiences of workers in these programmes have received little attention from academics and policy‐makers alike. Consequently, it is currently unclear what the impacts of the employment generated are and whether this employment reduces or perpetuates inequalities. Purpose This article examines the extent to which school feeding programmes can generate beneficial employment by examining the experiences of cooks in the world's largest school lunch programme, India's Midday Meal Scheme. The article focuses on five key areas: who is employed; their pay; their workload; their access to social protection; and the effects of privatization. Approach and methods To examine these five areas, data from three sources are combined: primary data collected in Rajasthan; state‐level secondary data; and the analysis of national‐level documents. Findings The findings show that national policy creates a system in which cooks in the Midday Meal Scheme are underpaid, undervalued, and overworked. These working conditions are underpinned by a series of assumptions and narratives which are all too common in perceptions of care work: that the work is unskilled, not time consuming, and motivated by altruism. The state's lack of regard for these workers is evident in the growing privatization of the scheme. Policy implications Overall, the findings show that policy on school feeding programmes, including those in India, needs to ensure that those working in the scheme are treated as employees and receive sufficient pay and benefits. Providing decent work in these programmes has the potential to not only reduce poverty and inequalities but also to improve the implementation of school feeding programmes.

Suggested Citation

  • Lana Whittaker, 2024. "Underpaid, undervalued, and overworked: The working conditions of cooks in India's school lunch programme," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(4), July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:42:y:2024:i:4:n:e12774
    DOI: 10.1111/dpr.12774
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12774
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/dpr.12774?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rajni PALRIWALA & N. NEETHA, 2010. "Care arrangements and bargains: Anganwadi and paid domestic workers in India," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 149(4), pages 511-527, December.
    2. Jennifer Gaddis & Amy K. Coplen, 2018. "Reorganizing School Lunch for a More Just and Sustainable Food System in the US," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 89-112, July.
    3. Jean Drèze & Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, 2001. "School Participation in Rural India," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 1-24, February.
    4. Rajshri Jayaraman & Dora Simroth, 2015. "The Impact of School Lunches on Primary School Enrollment: Evidence from India's Midday Meal Scheme," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 117(4), pages 1176-1203, October.
    5. Farzana Afridi, 2011. "The Impact of School Meals on School Participation: Evidence from Rural India," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(11), pages 1636-1656.
    6. Nancy Folbre, 2014. "The Care Economy in Africa: Subsistence Production and Unpaid Care," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 23(suppl_1), pages 128-156.
    7. Francie LUND, 2010. "Hierarchies of care work in South Africa: Nurses, social workers and home-based care workers," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 149(4), pages 495-509, December.
    8. Afridi, Farzana, 2010. "Child welfare programs and child nutrition: Evidence from a mandated school meal program in India," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 152-165, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kaur, Randeep, 2021. "Estimating the impact of school feeding programs: Evidence from mid day meal scheme of India," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    2. Drèze, Jean & Khera, Reetika, 2017. "Recent Social Security Initiatives in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 555-572.
    3. Chakraborty, Tanika & Jayaraman, Rajshri, 2019. "School feeding and learning achievement: Evidence from India's midday meal program," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 249-265.
    4. Suman Chakrabarti & Samuel P. Scott & Harold Alderman & Purnima Menon & Daniel O. Gilligan, 2021. "Intergenerational nutrition benefits of India’s national school feeding program," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-10, December.
    5. Bao, Yanxi & Liao, Tingxuan, 2024. "Multidimensional poverty and growth: Evidence from India 1998–2021," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    6. Tiwari, Sandeep Kumar & Paltasingh, Kirtti Ranjan & Jena, Pabitra Kumar, 2020. "Caste-class association and school participation in Uttar Pradesh, India: Evidence from NSSO data," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    7. Rishikesan Parthiban & Israr Qureshi & Somprakash Bandyopadhyay & Babita Bhatt & Saravana Jaikumar, 2020. "Leveraging ICT to Overcome Complementary Institutional Voids: Insights from Institutional Work by a Social Enterprise to Help Marginalized," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 633-653, June.
    8. Rohini Somanathan & Bidisha Barooah & Farzana Afridi, 2016. "The Mixture as Before? Student Responses to the Changing Content of School Meals in India," Working Papers id:10874, eSocialSciences.
    9. Nandi, Arindam & Haberland, Nicole & Ngo, Thoai D., 2023. "The impact of primary schooling expansion on adult educational attainment, literacy, and health: Evidence from India’s Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    10. Farzana Afridi & Bidisha Barooah & Rohini Somanathan, 2016. "Student responses to the changing content of school meals in India," Working papers 264, Centre for Development Economics, Delhi School of Economics.
    11. Sangita Das, 2023. "Inequality in Educational Attainment: Urban-Rural Comparison in the Indian Context," Papers 2307.16238, arXiv.org, revised Oct 2024.
    12. Chatterjee, Ishita & Li, Ian & Robitaille, Marie-Claire, 2018. "An overview of India’s primary school education policies and outcomes 2005–2011," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 99-110.
    13. Afridi, Farzana & Barooah, Bidisha & Somanathan, Rohini, 2019. "Hunger and Performance in the Classroom," IZA Discussion Papers 12627, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Brahma, D. & Mukherjee, D., 2018. "India’S Mid-Day Meal Program And Schooling: An Evaluation Based On Machine Learning," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 18(1), pages 141-152.
    15. Fang, Guanfu & Zhu, Ying, 2022. "Long-term impacts of school nutrition: Evidence from China’s school meal reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    16. Janmejaya Samal & Ranjit Kumar Dehury, 2017. "Family Impact Analysis of Mid-day Meal (MDM) Scheme in India with Special Focus on Child Education and Nutrition," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 2(2), pages 151-162, July.
    17. McEwan, Patrick J., 2013. "The impact of Chile's school feeding program on education outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 122-139.
    18. Saswati Das, 2016. "Inequality in Educational Opportunity in India: Evidence and Consequence of Social Exclusion," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(1), pages 51-71, March.
    19. Chauhan, Apurv, 2015. "Plates for slates: The impact of a school feeding programme on community representations of schools," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 292-300.
    20. Charu Jain & Ruchi Jain, 2023. "Chronic Absenteeism and Its Impact on the Learning Outcomes of Primary Grade Students in India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 17(1-2), pages 124-162, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:devpol:v:42:y:2024:i:4:n:e12774. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/odioruk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.