Anganwadi workers boycott work as part of nationwide mass protest

Anganwadi workers and helpers join the nationwide protest at Azad Maidan, Panaji on Wednesday.

Photo Credits: Narayan Pissurlenkar

PANAJI

The Akhil Goa Rajya Anganwadi Karmachari Sanghatana affiliated to the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) on Wednesday boycotted work by shutting down the anganwadi centres as part of the nationwide mass protest organized by the anganwadi workers and helpers.  

State president of the association Sunita Murgaonkar addressing media persons put across various long pending demands including appealing the government to regularize the services of anganwadi workers and helpers, increase the budget for Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and that they should be paid a minimum wage of Rs 26,000 a month apart from introducing monthly pension scheme.

However, Murgaonkar admitted that compared to other parts of the country, in Goa, the workers are paid between Rs 10,000 to Rs 18,000 per month while the honorarium of the helpers varies from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,500 monthly.

“We demand that the word Honorarium workers be removed and we should be included in the pay scale with government servants,” she said.

As many as 1,200 workers and helpers staged protests at Azad maidan pressing for their demands.

She said that anganwadi workers are tasked with registering beneficiary details in the POSHAN Tracker application which has made their job harder. The app has purportedly increased their workload. “We demand that the system should be stopped immediately. Also, the mobile phones provided by the government are not in working condition and hence should be replaced,” she said.

The other demands include gratuity benefit, filling vacant posts of anganwadi workers and helpers and providing basic amenities and infrastructure facilities at all anganwadi centres, she added.

Meanwhile, AITUC extended support to the nationwide general strike called by Central Trade Unions and Farmers’ organisation to protest against the anti-labour and anti-farmers policies,

“How will chief minister Pramod Sawant defend the indefensible? The workers are made to work for 14 to 16 hours in the industrial estates without paying them for overtime,” AITUC Secretary Suhas Naik said.

Naik accused the BJP-led NDA government of dismantling existing labour protections through the enforcement of four new labour codes, which they termed as “exploitative” and pro-corporate.

Naik said that the state government has been repeatedly using the Goa Essential Services and Maintenance Act (ESMA), 1988, to prohibit strikes in the pharmaceutical sector.

He alleged that the ESMA protects companies violating labour laws and suppressing workers’ rights to form unions.