Thousads of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers held demonstration at Nagpur

Thousads of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers held demonstration at Nagpur

Nearly Ten thousand Anganwadi Workers thronged Nagpur and demonstrated militantly against the delay in announcing the raise in Honorarium and Pension scheme which the state CM promised on 26th October.

The demonstration was held by the Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Kriti Samiti with only CITU and AITUC mobilizing the most. Other 2 Unions sent their non Anganwadi Leaders and HMS could not mobilize at all.

The Rally started from the Bal Bhawan near Shukrawari Lake and culminated at the Vidhan Bhawan.The Workers demonsrated very militantly and gave slogans against the Government which promised raise in Honorarium and implementation of Pension scheme on 26th October on the 9th day of indefnite strike. Rameshchandra Dahiwade, Shubha Shamim, Anna Sawant, Armaity Irani, Sushila Bhagat, Pratibha Shinde, Com Amrut Meshram, Com Asai and com Dilip Deshpande, the CITU leaders addressed the Rally. Com Rajaram Ozare, MLA of CPIM also spoke and promised to raise the demand in the Assembly. AITUC leaders Com Sukumar Damale, Shyam Kale, Dilip Utane, Ram Baheti and Ganpatrao Deshmukh of Mahasangh and Ramchandra Patil of Sangh also spoke.

It was announced that the Rally will not be wind up till Minister for Women & Child Development Department comes out and accepts the Memorandum and takes our delegation to the new CM Prithviraj Chavan. The Workers became very restless and prepared themselves to break the corden and march towards Vidhan Bhawan. The Police was also desperately trying to contact the Minister. At last they could contact her and Varsha Gaikwad, The WCD Minister came out and announced that her department was committed to fulfilling the promises given by the previous Minister. The Workers were not convinced at all. Nobody clapped and they even booed at her. Finally she told them that she will try to meet the CM with their delegation. Our delegation went to meet the CM and he agreed to raise the honorarium and look into the matter of Pension immediately.
The delegation came back and announced the discussions but the workers were not convinced at all with the promises. They demanded that the Government should take conrete and reasonable decision on the spot and the demonstration should be converted into an indefinite Strike. This decision could not be taken in the absence of some of the main leaders of Kriti Samiti, so after much convincing and militantly demonstrating for some time the rally was wind up.

The doubts of the Workers proved right. On 16th the CM announced that House has taken decision to raise salaries and perks of MLAs, Ministers and his own by nearly 30,000 and raise honorarium of Anganwadi Workers by 250 and Helpers by merely 100. We condemn this decision and announce that decision about further struggle will be taken in the meeting of Kriti Samiti.

Further Struggles of Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Kriti Samiti

A meeting of Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Kriti Samiti was held on 17th December in Mumbai. It evaluated the amount of raise declared by the new CM on the last day of Nagpur Session of Legislative Assembly. The Kriti Samiti considered that though CM showed some concern and considered raising the Honorarium of Anganwadi Workers & Helpers, the amount declared is too low and not sufficient for the survival in this scorching Price Rise. The Kriti Samiti after detailed discussions decided to organise Project, District and State agitation on 28th December.

The demands of the agitation-

• Reconsider the raise in Honorarium of Anganwadi workers & helpers & increase it further
substantially.
• Implement the Pension scheme for Anganwadi Workers & Helpers
• No extra burden of work such as Village Child Development Centres and Election duty.
• No privatisation of Supplementary Nutrition Food. No THR ( Take Home Ration)
• No Privatisation and No Corruption.