Hundreds of low-wage labourers working in the warehouses of Food Corporation of India (FCI) staged a massive demonstration outside the FCI headquarters on Monday to protest Centre’s ongoing push to handover operations of the food godowns to private contractors.

“Out of 426 FCI godowns in the country, 326 are being managed by private contractors. The workers in these warehouses are not getting any fixed pay, which could be as low as 50 paise for every sack loaded/unloaded,” said Madan Singh, the joint secretary of the Food Corporation of India Handling-Workers Union.

The private players who subcontract the FCI depots buy their tenders at the rate of ₹4-6 per sack. The government pays for every other operational cost but the labour wages, which is the responsibility of the contractors, it has been learnt.

“To maximise their profits, these players underpay and exploit the poor workers,” said Singh.

“Those working in the FCI godowns, on the other hand, are entitled to a fixed wage of ₹600 a day,” added Singh.