Anganwadi Workers And Helpers

THE All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers welcomes the proposal of the finance minister to create 1,88,168 more anganwadi centers in the country. The number still falls far short of the number required to be opened  as per the Supreme Court judgment,  which requires opening of anganwadi centers in all the habitations. At present 6,49,000 anganwadi centers are functioning in the country, while a total of around 14,00,000 anganwadi centers would be required to cater to all the needy children, pregnant and lactating mothers in the country. We hope the remaining centers will be opened at the earliest.

We also welcome the decision to double the supplementary nutrition norms and share half of the cost by the central government, but ICDS being a central government sponsored scheme, the entire cost of supplementary nutrition should have been borne by the government of India.

As the finance minister himself has admitted around half the children between 0-3 years in our country are underweight and suffer from nutritional deficiencies. This calls for, among other measures, strengthening of the delivery mechanism of the services under the ICDS. The anganwadi workers and helpers who are the key functionaries in implementing the ICDS at the grass root level should be regularised as government employees.

While the allocation for the ICDS scheme has been increased, it is entirely disappointing that there is no mention of any enhancement of the honorarium of the anganwadi workers and helpers, who get a paltry honorarium. We demand that, pending their regularisation, the honorarium be immediately enhanced to Rs 2,500 and Rs 1,500 per month for workers and helpers respectively.

The AIFAWH calls upon all the anganwadi employees in the country to unite and intensify their struggle on their long pending demands of regularisation and enhancement of honorarium.