Parliament Question: Wages of Workers under PM Poshan Scheme

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 3455 ANSWERED ON- 11.08.2025 Wages of Workers under PM Poshan Scheme †3455. Shri Parimal Suklabaidya:

Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state:

(a) whether the Government is making payment of wages to the cooks and other attached staff working in the country especially in Assam under Pradhan Mantri Poshan Yojana (PM POSHAN);

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) if not, whether the Government proposes to make any arrangement to pay wages/salary to these workers; and

(d) whether there is any provision for payment of wages/salary to the cooks and workers working under the scheme in other States/UTs as well and if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY)

(a) to (d): Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) Scheme is one of the foremost rights based Centrally Sponsored Scheme implemented in partnership with the States and UTs for providing one hot cooked and nutritious meal to all children studying in Bal Vatika (just before class-I) and classes I to VIII of Government and Government-aided schools.

The Scheme covers about 11 crore children in more than 10.35 lakh schools in all the States/ UTs. For FY 2025-26, budget allocation for the PM Poshan Scheme is Rs. 12,500 crore by Government of India and the State/ UT share as per the sharing pattern is around Rs. 7,500 crore including additional funds for Honorarium to Cook-cum-Helpers and Supplementary Nutrition items.

The overall responsibility for smooth functioning of the scheme including providing hot cooked and nutritious meal to the eligible children as well as engagement of cook-cum-helpers

(CCHs) lies with the State Governments and Union Territory Administrations. However, these CCHs are honorary workers who have come forward for rendering social services. As per guidelines of the Scheme, honorarium of Rs. 1000/- per month for 10 months in a year is prescribed for these CCHs in recognition of their services and the same is being continued. The honorarium expenditure is shared between the Central Government and States and UTs as per the approved sharing pattern, including the State of Assam. The sharing pattern between Central Government and the State Government of Assam is 90:10. The State Governments and UT Administrations have the authority to enhance the honorarium by providing additional funds from their own resources and many State Governments and UT Administrations have supplemented the honorarium by providing additional funds. The State of Assam has reported that the honorarium to CCH is paid upto June, 2025 under PM POSHAN Scheme. The details of honorarium provided to CCHs under the PM POSHAN Scheme by the States and UTs including the State of Assam are given at Annexure.

*****ANNEXURE ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (D) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3455 FOR 11.08.2025 ASKED BY HON’BLE MP SHRI PARIMAL SUKLABAIDYA REGARDING WAGES OF WORKERS UNDER PM POSHAN SCHEME.

Honorarium of Cook cum Helper per month S.No. States/UTs Cooks-cum-Helpers - Additional Honorarium per Honorarium Per Month month to cook-cum-helpers (in Rs) provided by States/ UTs (in Rs) 1 Andhra Pradesh 3000 2000 2 Arunachal Pradesh 2000 1000 3 Assam 1500 500 4 Bihar 1650 650 5 Chhattisgarh 2000 1000 6 Goa 1000 0 7 Gujarat 3250 2250 8 Haryana 7000 6000 9 Himachal Pradesh 4500 3500 10 Jharkhand 3000 2000 11 Karnataka 3700 2700 12 Kerala 12000 11000 13 Madhya Pradesh 4000 3000 14 Maharashtra 2500 1500 15 Manipur 1000 0 16 Meghalaya 2000 1000 17 Mizoram 3000 2000 18 Nagaland 1000 0 19 Odisha 2000 1000 20 Punjab 3000 2000 21 Rajasthan 2143 1143 22 Sikkim 1000 0 23 Tamil Nadu 4100-12500 3100-11500 24 Telangana 3000 2000 25 Tripura 2500 1500 26 Uttar Pradesh 2000 1000 27 Uttarakhand 3000 2000 28 West Bengal 2000 1000 29 A&N Islands 1000 0 30 Chandigarh 4500 3500 31 D&N and D & Diu 6461 5461 32 Delhi 1000 0 33 Jammu & Kashmir 1000 0 34 Ladakh 1000 0 35 Lakshadweep 18000-20200 18000-20200 36 Puducherry 10000 9000