Mumbai: Thousands of Anganwadi workers in government-run centres, where nutrition and basic health care is provided to children across India, are demanding better salaries and have opposed the decision to replace hot meals with pre-packed food.
In Maharashtra, the indefinite strike by 200,000 Anganwadi workers, who are mostly women, is in its 13th day and with the state government reluctant to hear their demands, they have planned to intensify their strike. With Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray promising them support, “a massive rally will be held on September 27. The Sena will be in full attendance — with Uddhavji, Sena legislators, municipal corporators and district level representatives as well as Sena activists being present there,” M.A. Patil, a member of the Action Committee formed by seven Anganwadi unions, told Gulf News.
Anganwadi centres were first started by the Indian government in 1975 as part of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme to combat child hunger and malnutrition particularly in villages and tribal areas.
Patil said, the Women and Child Department of the state government had formed an Honorarium Committee on August 20, 2016, after much pursuance by the Action Committee. Yet, the government did not address their concerns and therefore the workers took the extreme step of going on strike. An Anganwadi worker gets an honorarium of Rs5,000 (Dh383) and her assistant Rs2,500. “Uddhavji felt that the government was unwilling to give them a raise and yet it was spending millions of rupees on huge projects,” said Patil.
In comparison, states such as Telengana, Kerala and Delhi have raised the honorarium beyond Rs10,000, while other including Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Haryana have raised it up to or more than Rs8,000. “Maharashtra is making the workers slog for a meagre amount and that is why they have decided to go on a strike,” said Patil.
What is important is that this approach is wasting time since 650,000 beneficiaries including children, pregnant women and lactating mothers will suffer as they are being deprived of supplementary nutrition and health services.
Another issue that has angered the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) is the “decision of the Government of India, as stated by Union Minister of Women and Child Welfare, Maneka Gandhi, to introduce a policy of replacing hot cooked meals in the Anganwadi centres with ready-to-eat packed dry food. We also condemn her totally unsubstantiated statement that ‘anganwadi stopped being an effective delivery system 20 years ago’, contradicting evidence provided by various studies and reports,” said Shubha Shamim, Vice-President, AIFAWH.
She added, “This indicates the intent of the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]-led NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government to weaken and ultimately dismantle the Anganwadi centres and to involve the corporate giants in the ICDS.”
