ON Children’s Day, November 14, thousands of Anganwadi workers and helpers across the country held massive mobilisations, demanding the enactment of a law to ensure Early Childhood Development (ECD), the institutionalisation of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme on its 50th anniversary, and the implementation of the recent Gujarat High Court order on the regularisation of Anganwadi workers and helpers.
The All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) organised these events as part of a year-long campaign to mark the golden jubilee of the ICDS Scheme, now called Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0, which will complete 50 years in 2025. As the world’s largest scheme addressing malnutrition and hunger, ICDS plays a crucial role in our country that accounts for half of the world’s malnourished children.
Despite its significance, the scheme continues to face challenges. Even after five decades, Anganwadi centres lack proper infrastructure and fail to provide quality nutrition. A major concern is that Indian children still lack legal entitlement to early childhood care, education, and development (ECCD), even 75 years after independence.
The Gujarat High Court, in a landmark judgment on August 2, 2024 (uploaded on October 30, 2024), ordered the regularisation of Anganwadi workers and helpers as Class III and Class IV employees. It directed authorities to implement the decision within six months and to ensure payment of minimum wages in the interim. This follows an earlier Supreme Court judgment in April 2022, which ruled that Anganwadi workers and helpers are entitled to gratuity and urged the central and state governments to improve their working conditions, recognising their critical statutory duties under the National Food Security (NFS) and Right to Education (RTE) Acts.
AIFAWH’s campaign underscores the urgent need for government action to institutionalise ICDS, guarantee legal rights for ECCD, and implement the judiciary’s directives to ensuring dignity and fair treatment for the Anganwadi workforce.
As the need to strengthen the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) becomes increasingly crucial for the country, policies over the past decade have instead weakened the scheme and marginalised Anganwadi workers and helpers. Central governments have introduced drastic budget cuts to ICDS, frozen remuneration for over six years, and failed to provide retirement benefits. There were also efforts to privatise the scheme through corporate partnerships with entities like Vedanta and various NGOs. And, under the NEP 2020, the pre-school education component of ICDS has been shifted to the school education system, diluting the scheme's scope.
Anganwadi workers and helpers also face numerous challenges, including delayed remuneration, inadequate funding for rents, travel allowances, uniforms, and essential facilities at Anganwadi centres. They are burdened with non-ICDS extra work and face harassment under the guise of digitisation. Beneficiaries are also being threatened with exclusion due to mandatory Aadhaar linking and e-KYC processes.
As part of the golden jubilee observance of ICDS, AIFAWH has launched a series of programmes to demand the institutionalisation of ICDS. On Children’s Day, November 14, AIFAWH, the largest trade union federation representing Anganwadi workers and helpers, called for nationwide rallies and demonstrations to demand urgent action.
District- and project-level demonstrations were held across Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. In Assam, the protest is scheduled for November 18. In Tamil Nadu, human chains were formed at sector and centre levels by Anganwadi workers, helpers, and beneficiaries.
In Punjab, a state-level demonstration was organised in Sangrur outside the chief minister’s residence, where AIFAWH general secretary A R Sindhu addressed the gathering. Another protest is planned for November 18 in Ludhiana, outside the residence of central minister Ravneet Bittu.
These actions are a part of AIFAWH’s sustained efforts to strengthen ICDS and ensure justice for Anganwadi workers and helpers who play a pivotal role in combating malnutrition and supporting early childhood development in India.
Demands
- Implement Judicial Orders: Immediately implement the Gujarat High Court order on the regularisation of Anganwadi workers and helpers and the Supreme Court order granting gratuity to them.
- Right to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE): Enact legislation to ensure the Right to ECCE for children under six years, with Anganwadi centres as the nodal agencies. Withdraw the NEP 2020, and refrain from linking ECCE to the formal education system.
- Eradicate Malnutrition and Hunger: Take urgent, time-bound measures to eliminate malnutrition and hunger, particularly among children. Improve the quality of nutrition provided at Anganwadi centres and ensure the right to maternity benefits for all women for all deliveries, with increased financial assistance.
- Institutionalise ICDS: Strengthen ICDS (Saksham Anganwadi and Poshan 2.0) under ECCE legislation as integrated Anganwadi-cum-crèche facilities, addressing local needs with proper infrastructure and adequate human resources. Ensure the effective implementation of existing provisions with sufficient funding and fill all vacancies.
- Implement Labour Conference Recommendations: Urgently implement the 45th and 46th Indian Labour Conference recommendations, providing minimum wages of Rs 26,000 per month, pensions of Rs 10,000 per month, and comprehensive social security measures, including Provident Fund (PF) and Employees’ State Insurance (ESI).
- Oppose Policies Weakening ICDS: Withdraw measures that undermine ICDS, such as direct cash transfers to beneficiaries, mandatory Aadhaar linking for scheme benefits, and targeting and surveillance under the guise of digitisation. Halt privatisation efforts, including the introduction of centralised kitchens.
- Recognise Trade Union Rights: Grant recognition to the trade union rights of Anganwadi workers and helpers. Take appropriate steps to ensure collective bargaining rights at all levels and withdraw the labour codes.
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