Anganwari workers carry on work without salary, safety kits in Bathinda

Workers, who have not been paid wages since February, are regularly providing ration to children, pregnant women

By 10 am on Saturday, anganwari worker Rajni Bala, a widow and mother of two young children, reaches Naval Mandir at Bathinda’s Awa Basti for distribution of ration among beneficiaries.

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Though Rajni and her colleagues have not been paid wages since February and not provided any safety kits, they are regularly providing ration to the registered children, pregnant women and nursing mothers in her area. “It is our duty to provide food material at their doorstep during the pandemic crisis. But most of us are also struggling to feed our families. I have two children, including a 10-year-old daughter, and elderly mother-in-law with no wages coming in. Anganwari workers move among masses to discharge duty, but we have no protection kits,” she adds while preparing raw food packets at the temple.

After the lockdown, anganwari workers have been directed to provide ration at the doorstep of beneficiaries. These recipients are entitled to up to 1kg each of wheat flour, sugar and rice for a fortnight as readymade ‘panjiri’ is not in supply since last month. But workers say neither the administration nor any social organisation has provided them hand sanitisers or masks. “We have been directed to supply uncooked material, but bags have not been provided to us. We borrow carry bags from our neighbours and even the beneficiaries. We have no means to carry the food material to the households,” says Gurcharan Kaur, in-charge of Awa Basti that has about 40 beneficiaries.

Manpreet Kaur, a worker from Amarpur Basti, said the state government should provide insurance to anganwari workers. “Most of the workers are widows and they should have a sense of security for their next of kin while discharging duty in these challenging times. Our association has decided to stay away from screening of households for suspected Covid-19 cases if anganwari workers are not provided protection kits,” she said. District programme officer Avtar Kaur said the issue of delayed salary being looked into by the state-level officials. While lauding anagwanri workers for efficiently distributing dry ration, she said the department has no provision to provide hand sanitisers and protection kits for them.