Anganwadi workers to go on strike

Mumbai: Anganwadi workers from across the state will march towards Azad Maidan wearing masks of Savitribai Phule on January 3 as part of an indefinite strike to protest against poor working conditions and non-implementation of several of their long-standing demands

Mumbai: Anganwadi workers from across the state will march towards Azad Maidan wearing masks of Savitribai Phule on January 3 as part of an indefinite strike to protest against poor working conditions and non-implementation of several of their long-standing demands.

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Anganwadi workers are the supplementary healthcare force collecting and collating data regarding various government schemes, spreading awareness on control of diseases and providing support to maternal and child health in their areas. They have been fighting to be recognised as government employees with benefits like gratuity, retirement benefits and respectable wages.

“The workers were given mobile phones to track the nutrition status of children and women in communities. These phones are not compatible with the app that the government uses. Some of them had to buy smartphones just to be able to complete this task,” MA Patil, president of the State Anganwadi Workers’ Association, said.

This, he said, was a case of an employer not providing the right tools to their employee to do their job.