Lok Sabha election: anganwadi workers in Capital to boycott AAP, BJP, Congress for not meeting demands
Workers associated with the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union (DSWAHU) have pledged to boycott the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Congress in the upcoming Lok Sabha election for not fullling their demands.
The workers have been asking for a permanent employee status, a guaranteed minimum wage and the immediate reinstatement of those whose jobs were terminated for participating in a strike in 2022.
For most anganwadi workers, sustaining themselves with their stagnant wages in the time of in¦ation has become dicult.
Geeta Negi, 45, an anganwadi worker in Delhi’s Khajuri Khas, said that while the workload has increased over the years, their salaries have not kept pace with increased in¦ation. She walks 45 minutes every day to her anganwadi centre, lets children in, checks their vitals, and spreads awareness in the neighbourhood while logging in every activity manually and on her phone.
“Yet we are not paid overtime for the additional tasks, and we can be terminated from our jobs at any time as has happened before,” said Ms. Negi, who has worked at anganwadis for 16 years.
Job insecurity, a major concern for the 18,000 workers aliated with DSWAHU, stems from the terminations that left 884 workers and helpers in dire straits in 2022. While 551 of them have been offered their jobs back, some have taken up odd jobs to sustain their families and some still hold on to the hopes of reinstatement.
The notice, sent in March 2022 from the Delhi government’s Department of Women and Child Development (WCD), stated that they were terminated because they had participated in a strike.
The workers were protesting for government employee status, a minimum salary of ₹25,000 for anganwadi workers and ₹20,000 for helpers.
The High Court is hearing a case on the terminations.
Following the 2022 strike, the Delhi government increased monthly wages to ₹12,720 and ₹6,810 for workers and helpers respectively. However, they continue to ght for a minimum wage, which is currently at ₹21,215 for skilled workers, ₹19,279 for semi-skilled workers, and ₹17,494 for unskilled labourers.
Poonam Rani, 42, who was among the terminated workers and is now assisting the union in their daily tasks, said, “Since online work has been introduced, most workers struggle to pay their recharge bills since our salaries are so low.” She said that they were disappointed with AAP for the terminations and the BJP-ruled Centre for promising a raise to all anganwadi workers in the country as a “Diwali gift” in 2018, which “they never received”.
As for Congress, which said in its manifesto that it would double the Centre’s salary contribution for anganwadi workers, the workers say there was no mention of recognising them as permanent employees or of their reinstatement demand.
The Revolutionary Workers’ Party of India (RWPI) has included the demands of the workers in its campaign. Aditi, the party’s North West Delhi candidate, has already visited several anganwadi centres in Samaypur Badli.