THE national convention of anganwadi workers and helpers to ‘Save ICDS’ held on November 5 under the banner of the Samyukta Morcha of Anganwadi Employees’ Federations has decided to march to parliament on their long pending demands of regularisation, minimum wages and pension and against the drastic cut in the budget 2015-16 and the handing over of anganwadi centres to corporates. The federations in the Samyukta Morcha are affiliated to the AICCTU, AIUTUC, AITUC, CITU, HMS and INTUC. The convention was presided over by a presidium consisting of Uma Netam (AICCTU), Usha Saini (AITUC), Pushpa Dalal (AIUTUC), Neelima Maitra (CITU), Shalini Singh (HMS) and Lata Yadav (INTUC). The declaration was placed by A R Sindhu (CITU) and seconded by B V Vijayalakshmi (AITUC). The convention was addressed by Shashi Yadav, Suvarna Talekar (AICCTU), Amarjeet Kaur, Madhuri Kshirsagar (AITUC), Achintya Sinha, Kamalesh Chahal (AIUTUC), Dr K Hemalata, Usharani (CITU), M A Patil, Champaben Parmar (HMS) and Lata Yadav (INTUC). The convention decided to organise joint state level conventions in December – January and a march to parliament in February 2016 during the budget session of the parliament. The convention called upon all the anganwadi workers and helpers of the country to make the programmes successful. The declaration adopted at the national convention of anganwadi workers and helpers has strongly condemned the government of India’s moves to dismantle India’s prestigious flagship programme, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme. This convention denounces the governments’ apathetic attitude to the anganwadi workers and helpers, the grass root workers of the scheme. The ICDS which has completed forty years this year is the only comprehensive programme which ensures the right of the child under six years, for food, health and education and the pregnant women for food and healthcare. The role of ICDS in combating the child malnutrition and infant and maternal mortality has been proven by many studies by different reputed agencies and organisations like NIPPCCD. In our country where nearly half of our children are undernourished and nearly 80 percent of the mothers are anaemic, the role of ICDS was acclaimed by the Supreme Court itself. The public demand had created a situation in our country where the right of the child under six for food is now ensured through the anganwadi centres through the Right to Food Act. The ICDS now covers nearly eight crore children under six and 1.9 crore pregnant women and lactating mothers. But, successive governments at the centre have been trying to withdraw from their responsibility to provide this basic service to children, the future citizens of our country, and women who give birth to them, by privatising ICDS. Although it has formally universalised the scheme under compulsion, the government of India at the dictates of the World Bank, has been trying to privatise it in different ways. The declaration noted that this convention expresses deep concern over the efforts to make the ICDS more short term through the ICDS Mission, introduced by the erstwhile UPA government and continued by the present NDA government which means that it could be wound up after achieving the ‘Mission’ target. This convention totally rejects all measures proposed in the ICDS Mission that weaken and ultimately lead to dismantling of ICDS like handing over ICDS projects to NGOs and local bodies, and participation of private educational institutions in ICDS, PPP, adoption of anganwadi centres by corporates, NGOs etc. The convention has condemned the drastic cut in the central budget allocations for ICDS by the NDA government from Rs18,108 crores in 2014-15 to a mere Rs 8,245.77crores in the budget 2015-16 on the pretext of greater devolution of funds to the states. But various calculations and demands by the states have shown that the net allocations to the state have come down in actual due to the large fund cuts of the centrally sponsored schemes and programmes like the ICDS, MDMS, NRHM, NREGS etc. More dangerous is the decision in the budget to change the fund sharing pattern with the centre having only the responsibility of capital expenditure, ie, expenditure on fixed assets such as buildings and land only, which in effect makes the responsibility of the government of India in implementation of the ICDS nominal. This is despite the assurance given by the government of India to the Supreme Court regarding the strengthening of the ICDS. The 12th plan allocation for the ICDS for the year 2015-16 is Rs 26,533 crores.The amount allotted by the Modi government is only one third of its own assessment of expenditure for the future of the country, our children. The drastic cut in funds has already started affecting the scheme. In states like Bihar, Punjab, UP etc, the supplementary nutrition is not being supplied since the last four-five months. Anganwadi employees are not being paid wages in many states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra etc since the last four-five months. In the name of lack of funds, the government is forcing the state governments to hand over the anganwadi centres to corporates and corporate NGOs like Vedanta, JP Cements, Nandi Foundation, ISKON through PPP, ‘adoption’ etc. Even the union minister for WCD publicly admitted that the department had no money to pay its employees. The government which promised in its election manifesto to ‘Review the working conditions and enhance the remuneration of Anganwadi workers’ had turned its back to the over 27 lakh anganwadi workers and helpers, many of whom had been working for a pittance for the last more than three decades. Since 2011 the remuneration of the anganwadi employees had not been increased whereas the working hours had been increased. Many additional responsibilities are also given to the employees. Today they have to work more than eight hours a day. They are forced to ‘retire’ without any social security. The NDA government had ignored the recommendation of the 45th Indian Labour Conference, the highest tripartite forum of the country, to recognise the anganwadi workers and helpers and employees, give them minimum wages and pension and other social security benefits. The anganwadi workers and Helpers all over the country have joined the all India general strike on September 2, 2015 in protest against the apathetic attitude of the government towards the ICDS and their most genuine demands. Instead of addressing their demands, the ministry of women and child development signed a memorandum of understanding with Cairn India Ltd, a subsidiary of the multinational corporation ‘Vedanta’ to ‘develop and modernise 4000 next generation anganwadis’ in the country. This is nothing but a blatant attempt to hand over the welfare of our children to the charity of the corporates and big business. As per this agreement these ‘new generation anganwadi centers’ would be ‘run as a shared space in which 50 percent of the time will be devoted to children’s education and the remaining half will support women’s skill development’. This is against the basic concept of the ICDS. The government has deliberately kept under wraps whether all the benefits that are at present available from the anganwadi centres to the children and women would continue to be available and the working conditions of the anganwadi workers and helpers in these so called ‘new generation anganwadi centres’. The company is changing the name of the anganwadi centres to ‘nand ghar’ creating apprehensions about the future of the anganwadi centres and the anganwadi workers and helpers working for decades in these centres. Is ‘skill development’ a ploy to utilise the anganwadi centres to enable the corporates exploit the cheap labour of poor rural women for the prime minister’s ‘Make in India’ project? The convention has strongly condemned any move to change the most popular name of ‘anganwadis’. It also demanded immediate cancellation of the MoU and desist from any attempts to privatise ICDS in any form. The declaration of the convention has demanded the government of India to take immediate measures for implementation of the recommendation of the 45th Indian Labour Conference on scheme workers – recognition as workers, payment of minimum wages, and provision of pension and other social security measures and stop privatisation in any form. These have again been reiterated by the 46th ILC. It underlines the commitment of the anganwadi workers and helpers from all over the country, belonging to different trade unions unanimously declares our to ‘save ICDS’ from the corporate interventions and dismantling and to save the basic rights of the children of the country and women for nutrition, health and education. The convention has called upon the beneficiaries’ organisations such as peasants, agricultural workers, workers, and women to support the struggles to save ICDS. It also called upon all the anganwadi employees and their unions, irrespective of their affiliations, to strengthen the unity at the grass root level to build a united movement against the anti-people policies of the government. It called upon the anganwadi workers and helpers all over the country to intensify their struggles against the privatisation of the scheme and for the rights of the anganwadi workers and helpers for decent working conditions. DEMANDS 1. Institutionalisation and universalisation of ICDS with full infrastructure and quality supplementary nutrition 2. Government of India to withdraw the moves to privatise the ICDS scheme in any form. 3. Immediate allocation of not less than Rs 36,000 crores for ICDS for the year 2015-16. 4. Regularisation of anganwadi workers and helpers as Grade III and Grade IV employees. 5. Pending regularisation, immediate implementation of recommendations of 45th ILC on scheme workers. 6. Minimum wages of Rs 15,000 per month 7. Social security benefits to all anganwadi workers and helpers including guaranteed pension, gratuity, health and other benefits.