RESENTMENT among anganwadi workers and helpers in Uttar Pradesh has been growing in the past year due to excessive work load. Increasing price rise, very low honorarium, lack of basic infrastructure in anganwadi centres, status of the scheme even after 41 years of its inception and cut in funding in the recent budget have added to their woes. Beginning with the all-India general strike on September 2, 2015, the struggle of anganwadi workers and helpers continued over their demands. In this year-long struggle, participation of workers in all protest demonstrations has been overwhelming.

THE All India Co-ordination Committee of Sugarcane growers met at Sundarayya Vigyan Kendram, Hyderabad in September last week. Representatives from ten states (Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand) participated in this meeting. The meeting began with opening remarks by AIKS general secretary Hannan Mollah,  S Malla Reddy presided over the meeting. The report was presented by N K Shukla, convenor and supplemented by Vijoo Krishnan, co-convenor.

The Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has issued the following statement on October 25.THE just concluded Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal meeting of the RSS in Hyderabad, Telangana, has repeated its fabricated charge against the CPI(M) and its `so-called’ violence against the RSS cadres in Kerala.The truth is the other way around.  Following the assembly elections, on the day the results were being announced, the RSS mounted a vicious  attack in the chief minister’s constituency hurling bombs at the victory procession which resulted in the death of one CPI(M)

DEAR Son,I know you are only twelve years old and wondering why I am writing to you on such a subject as sexual harassment. But son, as you might have read in Hindustan Times, a newspaper you distribute to all the subscribers in your class, nine eminent Indians have written open letters on rape to their children, friends and colleagues. Moreover, I noticed that in your Civics textbook, you are learning about discrimination between men and women. Also, you told us about a workshop in your school for girls and boys.

THE 13th Karnataka state conference of CITU was held successfully from October 17 to 19 at Kudalasangama in Bagalakote in the northern part of the state. Kudalasangama is a historical place where a movement for uplift of the downtrodden had began in the 12th century. In the 12th century, Basavanna was the finance minister under King Bijjala and he started the famous ‘vachana chaluvali’, along with ‘sharanas’, for the uplift of the downtrodden in society. Basavanna was a Brahmin by birth, but he dedicated his whole life for the cause of Dalit and other oppressed classes.