Protesting Anganbadi workers burnt effigy of Kejriwal at Delhi Secreatariat and declare to sit on a sequential hunger strike closing all the Anganbadi centres across Delhi till their demnds are met.

More than 500 aangabadi workers are protesting outside CM Kejriwal's house for more than two weeks and their hunger strike is into its 5th day.
Abhinav Sinha
(Editor, 'Mazdoor Bigul')

Scores of Anganbadi Workers from across Delhi gathered today at Delhi Secretariat to raise their demands in front of the Kejriwal Government. The workers were welcomed by Police with a barricade erected at Kisan Ghat. The Police tried to contain the rally at Kisan Ghat however the workers continued to march ahead breaking the barricade on their way and assembled their gathering at the Electric Power House near the Delhi secretariat. The Anganbadi Workers of Delhi have been on strike since the 7 of July this month. The striking workers have been protesting everyday outside the civil lines located residence of Mr Arvind Kejriwal. But the Government has paid no attention to their demands whatsoever. The striking workers are demanding that they be regularized and given permanent appointments, 8 hour work day, minimum wage and other benefits given to a government employee. Anganbadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care program which relies solely on the work of the Anganbadi workers most of which are women.
The protestors demanded that they be allowed to hold their protest demonstration outside Delhi secretariat however huge number of Police force deployed was deployed to prevent the protestors from reaching the Delhi secretariat. The workers held their protest demonstration near the Electric Power House. Various workers present addressed their fellow workers and shared the determination for the fight to achieve their common cause.
Bigul Mazdoor Dasta has been supporting the strike of the Anganbadi workers and standing in solidarity with workers in their fight for their rights. Shivani from Bigul Mazdoor Dasta said while addressing the workers that “We will not give up and get discouraged by the negligence of the authorities. We have been denied of our rights by the Government. We toil to provide health-care, medical assistance, nutrition to millions of urban and rural poor while working with the least amount of facilities and infrastructure. We are not deemed as government employees and taking advantage of this technicality we, although engaged in work of perennial nature are denied of minimum wage, E.S.I , P.F and other benefits. We will fight till we get our rights.” A team of representatives went to submit the memorandum of demands with the Chief Minister office however no government official met with the representatives or cared to give any assurance regarding the matter. The Anganbadi workers decided unanimously to launch a non-coperation movement against the government by closing all the Anganbadi centres across Delhi and to sit on a sequential hunger strike outside Arvind Kejriwal's residence till the Government accepts their demand and fulfills the electoral promise that they made to the workers of Delhi. The protesting workers also burnt an effigy of Arvind Kejriwal.
On 16 July 2015 the Anganwadi workers organized a Chetavni Rally from Civil Lines to Delhi Vidhan Sabha to send across a message to the Delhi Government that they are in for the long haul and will not give up their fight until their demands are met.
The Anganbadi workers are involved in looking after the education, nutrition, immunization and health of lakhs of pre-school children and providing health care and assistance to expectant and nursing mothers. The Anganbadi workers form the backbone of the program where in one Anganbadi worker caters to a 1000 people in her area. The urban poor in Delhi rely heavily on the services and assistance of the Anganbadi workers from pre-natal care to accessing information about immunization. But even after being allotted such important duties the working conditions of the Anganbadi workers are very grave. They survive on a meagre incentive of Rs. 4000 per month and are not given any other benefit or honorarium, they have no fixed hours of working. Apart from looking after malnutritioned children, poor and expecting mothers they have to do birth and death registrations and recently they also have been assigned election duties for which they receive no additional remuneration. The workers have been exploited by the authorities since the very inception of the program and they have been from time to time raising their voice against this injustice.
Last year in July scores of Anganbadi workers from Chattisgarh, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh had come to Delhi to protest against this exploitation and demand a raise in their salary with the Central Government. The workers demanded that 4 July be celebrated as 'Demands day' against the privatization of the Integrated Child Development Services in the name of 'ICDS Mission' and for the implementation of the recommendations of the 45th Indian Labour Conference recognizing the scheme workers as government employees, paying them minimum wages, providing them pension. However no progress has been made since on this front either by the Central Government or the State Government. The Anganbadi workers continue to be ignored and marginalized while they toil day in and day out to provide services of critical importance to the countries poor.
This year the Anganbadi workers have been on strike for the last 10 days to raise their demands in front of the incumbent Aam Aadmi Government, since AAP itself in its 70 point action plan for Delhi promised to regularize workers employed on Contractual Labour system. The workers demand that the government fulfill its electoral promise that it made to them without any delay. The working class of Delhi voted for the Aam Aadmi Party believing that they will deliver on the promises made to them however even after more than 100 days of having been in power no substantial announcements or plans have been declared to regularize the largest work force that works on contractual labour system. The demands of the striking Anganwadi workers are:
1. The workers should be regularized, given permanent appointments and an 8 hour work day. The description of their work should be clearly stated.
2. The workers should be given ID cards. They should be given a fixed salary instead of an incentive and the salary should be paid by the 10th of every month.
3. The workers should be given E.S.I and P.F cards alongwith all the other facilities given to a government employee.
4. The workers should get summer and winter holidays.
5. The workers should be provided with pension upon retirement.
UPDATE- July 22, 2015
The Aanganbadi workers started Hunger Strike from July 18 and it is into its 5th day. Still the Kejriwal government has refused to listen to their demands. However, the Delhi Aanganbadi Workers-Helpers Union has expressed its resolve to continue the movement. Striking women workers of Aanganbadi have started picketing in different parts of Delhi and have successfully closed a number of Aanganbadi centres. As a result, the mobilization outside CM's house is increasing with everyday.
The union has made a strike fund and has appealed to the progressive intelligentsia, progressive women organizations, student organizations and individuals to send their contributions to it. Besides, the Aanganbadi workers themselves have contributed to the fund so that families of Aanganbadi helpers could be supported during the strike. On July 21 almost 500 hundred Aanganbadi workers had gathered outside CM's house. They organized a formal general body meeting and constituted their new union. Forms of union membership were filled and the chosen leading committee has been handed over the responsibility of filing the registration papers in the DLC office of North-East Delhi, who is also the union registrar. The general body also took the decision to boycott all electoral parties and their lackey trade union federations and also appealed to all the workers associated with these TU federations to overthrow the renegade leaders associated with the parties like CPI, CPM, Congress, BJP, SUCI and different shades of so-called Socialists. The general body meeting also passed a resolution to boycott all NGOs and voluntary organizations.
Moreover, workers teams performed a number of struggle songs and leaders of various independent unions and Bigul Mazdoor Dasta addressed the gathering.
Sunny Singh
(Convener, Delhi)
Bigul Mazdoor Dasta

Hastakshep