About one lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers are participating in a State-wide agitation from Tuesday, demanding a solution to their long-pending demands.
About 50,000 Anganwadi centres remain closed and Ayahs sent the children back to their homes.
The Anganwadi workers and helpers are demanding that they be treated as government employees, provision of gratuity, increase in the retirement age to 62 on par with other department employees, payment of ₹26,000 salary a month, removal of mini-Anganwadi centres and other demands.
“As the talks held with the officers concerned have failed, we decided to go on strike from December 12 [Tuesday], said A.P. Pragathiseela Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union State general secretary V.R. Jyothi.
The government is paying only ₹11,500 for workers and ₹7,000 each for helpers and Anganwadi workers, working in mini-centres, Ms. Jyothi said and demanded a pay of ₹26,000 a month to all.
“The Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Unions, affiliated to CITU [Centre of Indian Trade Union], IFTU [Indian Federation of Trade Unions] and AITUC [All India Trade Union Congress], were agitating for the last four years demanding implementation of the poll promises made by Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy. As there is no alternative, more than one lakh women went on strike,” IFTU State general secretary K. Polari said.
Speaking to The Hindu, AP Pragathiseela Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union State vice-president, Gudluru Bharathi said as the bills had not been paid for the last six months, quality food could not be served to the children in the Centres. “Government was giving instructions to maintain quality in Take Home Ration, YSR Sampoorna Poshana and YSR Sampoorna Plus Schemes, aimed at supplying nutritious food to the children, pregnant and lactating women. But, how can we maintain quality when the bills are not paid in time?”
The Anganwadi workers and helpers would close the Centres and stage protests at their project offices concerned, Ms. Jyothi said.
