Guarantee scheme survey in scorching sun leaves anganwadi and ASHA workers fuming

The ongoing survey of the five guarantee schemes among the beneficiaries has received flak from ASHA and anganwadi workers in the State as extreme heat condition in several parts has made the housetohouse survey difficult.

While the government order on involving ASHA and anganwadi workers who are being termed as “guarantee volunteers” came on February 20, the survey is on at several districts, and it is to be completed before the end of this week.

Each ASHA and angawadi worker has been offered additional honorarium of ₹ 1,000 for the survey work, and each of them are expected to cover 100 to 120 houses in about 10 to 15 days. The survey work is to cost government about ₹ 12 crore as about 1.2 lakh are to be deployed for survey. The survey work has taken a back seat in some areas as Pulse Polio programme was in place over the last couple of days.

“Extreme heat has made the survey difficult. Soon after the order came, we had opposed it. Already the ASHA and anganwadi workers are overburdened, and that survey work further makes it difficult,” said B. Amjad, president of Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Federation, affiliated to the AITUC.

Honorarium promise Part of the problem, trade union sources said, was that the Congress had promised to raise the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers to ₹ 15,000 and that of the helper to ₹ 10,000 in the runup to the Assembly elections. “We were promised the raise as the sixth guarantee. Despite two budgets, there is no word about the guarantee and we are asked to conduct a survey on the other five guarantees,” sources said.

Meanwhile, extending solidarity with the workers, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Tuesday slammed the State government for deploying them for the survey of five guarantee schemes being implemented in the State by Congress government. “It is shameless on part of the government to ask the ASHA and anganwadi workers to undertake a survey on the reach of guarantee schemes,” Mr. Kumaraswamy said on social media platform X.