After a four-day intense protest by thousands of anganwadi workers across the State last month, the State government has decided to enhance the honorarium of anganwadi workers and helpers.
This followed a meeting with anganwadi workers and helpers along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as well as Women and Child Development Minister Umashree on Monday. After the meeting, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah tweeted: “We have increased the honorarium of Anganwadi workers & helpers by Rs. 2,000 and 1,000 a month respectively. Request @PMOIndia to do the same.”
With this, anganwadi workers will earn ₹8,000 and helpers will earn ₹4,000.
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Mr. Siddaramaiah had already announced a hike of ₹1,000 and ₹500, respectively, in the 2017-18 State budget.
Although the association earlier demanded ₹10,000 and ₹7,500 for workers and helpers, respectively, S. Varalakshmi, president of Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers’ Association, said that they were happy with the hike as it was one of the largest increase since the recent times.
Ms. Varalakshmi urged the Union governmental to also hike their honorarium by the same margin. “The Centre has made several cuts in the Integrated Child Development Services and if they do not hike the honorarium, our next protest will be against the Union government,” she warned.
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Besides hiking the honorarium, she said that the workers demanded that LKG and UKG be introduced in anganwadis. The State government reportedly said that they would examine the issue. Besides, sources pointed out that a committee would be formed to study the service rules of Anganwadi workers.