Across Maharashtra, more than two lakh anganwadi workers have been on strike since September 11. According to data from July from Integrated Child Development System (ICDS), Maharashtra has 76,080 severely underweight and 4.92 lakh moderately underweight children. According to some estimates, the current count could be far higher due to an outbreak of waterborne infections in August and September.
Image: Indian Express
Maharashtra has 97,287 anganwadis where 2,06,000 anganwadi workers and helpers are appointed on contractual basis. There are 53.4 lakh children aged less than six in these anganwadis.
Their last increment was in 2014 when anganwadi workers got Rs 950 and helpers got a Rs 500 increment per month.
Along with children, such women are also bearing the brunt of the strike and the delay in the government’s decision to broker an agreement with protesting anganwadi workers.
In Nagpur, 500 anganwadi workers were detained by police for protestingon Saturday. Shamim said that the committee has started statewide protests to locally raise its demands.
In Amravati, Bandu Sane, attached with NGO Khoj, said, “If this was a strike of farmers, the government response would have been faster. Funding to the social sector has always been poor. Malnourished children and poor anganwadi workers get little political support.”
Amravati has 19,404 moderately and 3,448 severely underweight children. During monsoons, these malnourished children are prone to higher infections and deaths.In Nandurbar, Narmada Bachao Andolan activist Latika Rajput says that women who are beneficiaries under Amrut Aahar Yojana have to now consume home-cooked meals. Under the programme, they were entitled to receive eggs and two meals a day. “They eat less as the entire family shares the meal. The additional meal they got from the anganwadi has been cut short,” Rajput said, adding that the anganwadi strike has impacted tribal areas the most. “Several women and children entirely depend on free meals provided by anganwadis.”
The highest burden is in Palghar, where 43,732 children are moderately and severely underweight, followed by Nandurbar where 38,161 children are underweight. Under the Women and Child Development (WCD) department, a malnourished child is treated in a village child development centre (VCDC) in tribal districts where they get up to six meals a day for 30 days so they can come out of malnourishment parameters.
In Palghar’s Jawhar block, known for high malnutrition cases, two and-a-half-year-old twins Yadan and Ezar Jadhav are both moderately malnourished. Their father Tukaram Jadhav is a migratory labourer who grows rice on a small plot he owns. With anganwadis shut since last week due to an indefinite strike by their workers, the family makes do with the little they produce through rice cultivation.
“The children used to come for eggs and khichdi twice a day. The family is now making do with whatever rice they produce to fill the children’s stomach. What can we do? The twins may further slip into severe malnourishment,” says Shivaji Gode, whose wife Lata runs an anganwadi and is currently on strike in Palghar. The Times of India reports that the Kaikadi tribe, is worst affected because they depend on free anganwadi meals during monsoons when they shift to native villages.
“The state government has fixed a meeting on Monday to discuss the hike in our honorarium. The strike will continue until our demands are met,” said Shubha Shamim, secretary of Maharashtra State Anganwadi Workers’ Action Committee. Their major demand is to increase honorarium from Rs 5,000 to at least Rs 10,500.
The last increment was in 2014 when anganwadi workers got Rs 950 and helpers got a Rs 500 increment per month. Over 5 lakh pregnant women and lactating mothers are beneficiaries under the BJP’s flagship programme Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Amrut Aahar Yojana, which started in 2015 to provide free supplementary food for better nutrition. Along with children, such women are also bearing the brunt of the strike and the delay in the government’s decision to broker an agreement with protesting anganwadi workers.
In Nagpur, 500 anganwadi workers were detained by police for protestingon Saturday. Shamim said that the committee has started statewide protests to locally raise its demands.