Tiruvallur (Tamil Nadu), February 9 Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin launched the expansion of the free meal scheme for sanitation workers in urban local bodies across the state on Monday.
He stated that this was the first such initiative in the country.
The nutritious three-meal-a-day scheme was launched on November 15, 2025, in Chennai to benefit over 31,000 sanitation workers in the corporation areas, aiming to improve the health and working conditions of the employees who begin their work early in the morning.
Under the scheme implemented in all the 200 wards in Chennai Corporation, the workers are provided meals in tiffin boxes.
On Monday, Stalin launched the expanded program and took selfies with the sanitation workers at the government function held about 41 km from Chennai.
Describing the initiative as India's first-ever scheme to eradicate the hunger of sanitation workers, the chief minister said that a total of 1,29,689 sanitation workers, including 48,768 persons in 24 corporations, 29,556 people in 145 municipalities, and 21,910 people in 479 town panchayats, would benefit.
"The Dravidian model government is striving for the overall upliftment of sanitation workers by providing them housing, loans for entrepreneurs, life insurance, and scholarships for higher education of their children. We will implement many more welfare schemes and always support sanitation workers," Stalin said in a post on 'X'.
