As UNICEF acknowledged India’s success in improving the lot of children in the State of the World Children Report 2015 — unveiled on Friday — hundreds of anganwadi workers took to the streets in the Capital to protest the dilution of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), one of the biggest interventions made at the national level for early childhood development.
Under the banner of the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers — associated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions — the anganwadi employees submitted four crore signatures to the Prime Minister’s Office seeking his intervention in saving ICDS from privatisation.
‘Majority anaemic’Apart from flagging the problems faced by anganwadi workers who “have no minimum wages or pension after 38 years of service,” the Federation said India still accounts for 42 per cent of the world’s undernourished children. “Seventy-eight per cent of them are anaemic. 85 lakh children die at birth every year.’’
Asserting every child’s right to education and healthcare, the Federation said: “Shall we leave our future to the mercy of some ‘big’ ‘good’ people and corporate companies who may or may not help some of the `poor’ to eat food through some of their ‘charity’ programmes which fund the ICDS?’’
