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Seek pay hike: Anganwadi workers protest outside Bittu’s residence in Ludhiana
Hargobind Kaur, president of Punjab Anganwadi Workers Association, said that the workers for long had been demanding to induct them as government employees or at least be paid minimum wages as per labour laws.
Anganwadi workers demonstrated outside the residence of cabinet minister Ravneet Singh Bittu here on Wednesday to press their demand for salary hike.
Hargobind Kaur, president of Punjab Anganwadi Workers’ Association, said that the workers for long had been demanding to induct them as government employees or at least be paid minimum wages as per labour laws.
Anganwadi workers gets ₹4,500 a month while the helpers are paid ₹2,250 monthly by the Centre. The state government pays an additional ₹5,600 to workers and ₹2,500 to the workers.
“An Anganwadi worker gets around ₹10,000 per month and the helper nearly ₹5,000 per month. How is it possible for us to make our ends meet with such a paltry sum,” Kaur lamented.
“We have been asking the Centre for so long now to either regularise us as employees or at least compensate us at par with the minimum wages notified in the labour laws,” she added.
Kaur said that they have been staging protests outside the minister’s residence for the last few years, before he joined the BJP ahead of this year’s general elections and was sent to the parliament.
Last month, the workers met Union minister for women and child development Annapurna Devi. They have been meeting her predecessors as well to push their demands.
“The ministers listen to our demands and give us assurance but to no avail,” the president of the association said.
The protest commemorated 49 years of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), which was launched on October 2, 1975, said Kaur. The services of ICDS are offered at Anganwadi centres across the country through Anganwadi workers and helpers at grassroots level.
