Chandigarh, Aug. 28 -- The Punjab school education department is grappling with an ageing workforce of cooks-cum-helpers engaged in government schools across the state under the PM Poshan Shakti Nirman Scheme (PM Poshan). According to official estimates, of the nearly 44,500 cooks-cum-helpers in the government schools, approximately 10,000 (about 22%) are above the age of 60 years due to the absence of any guidelines related to retirement age. A study has flagged the impact of this on the operational efficiency. "It has been observed that very old females are working in schools as cooks-cum-helpers. It is a challenge to take work from them. Sometimes, they are not able to work properly due to various health issues," the audit report pointed out. The social audit was carried out by Panjab University, Chandigarh, for the school education department in 540 government elementary, high senior secondary and aided schools in all 23 districts. In several of them, school heads and teachers reported difficulties being faced by them in proper implementation of the scheme owing to aged mid-day meal workers. Age norms should be notified, the audit team recommended. The scheme covers approximately 19 lakh children studying in Classes 1 to 8 in 19,620 government and government-aided schools in Punjab, providing freshly cooked mid-day meals to these children. According to the PM Poshan norms, the engagement of cooks-cum-helpers is based on student enrolment in elementary classes - schools with up to 25 students are assigned one cook-cum-helper; two cooks-cum-helpers for enrolment between 26 and 100; and for every additional 100 students, one more cook-cum helper is engaged. An official from the school education department stated that several schools have been facing difficulties due to the aged workers as they are not able to cope with the workload of cooking meals for large numbers of children. "The department is in the process of drafting a policy on retirement age and service conditions of cooks-cum-helpers," said the official who did not want to be named. The state government is likely to set the retirement age at 60 years. Punjab Mid-Day Meal Workers' Union joint secretary Parveen Kumari said the state government is contemplating replacing cooks-cum-workers above 60 years of age by engaging someone from their immediate family. "This may not work as very few people will accept an honorarium of Rs.3,000 per month which is abysmally low as compared to other states," Kumari said. The mid-day workers' monthly honorarium is Rs.12,000 in Kerala, Rs.4,500 to Rs.12,500 in Tamil Nadu, and Rs.7,000 in Haryana. Punjab's education department has proposed raising the amount to Rs.4,000, but the union is demanding "honorarium parity" with Haryana....