Anganwadi workers are protesting in front of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence for last 17 days. It is alleged that they are made to work like slaves and are not paid for three months. These women are demanding that their salaries be increased and old dues should also be cleared. There are about 22,000 Anganwadi women in Delhi at present.
The female Aanganwadi workers allege that the Chief Minister of Delhi is going to Punjab and telling lies about Anganwadi women. Since 2017, the Delhi government has not raised a single paisa of Anganwadi women wages. For this also he had to sit on a dharna, after which his salary was increased. At present, Anganwadi workers get Rs 9,678 and helpers get Rs 4,839.
They say that whenever the government has to get the work done, the Anganwadi workers are brought forward and the government backtracks on the demand of increasing the salary. Now till their salary is not increased, this demonstration will continue like this. Their demand is that the salary of Anganwadi workers should be increased to Rs 25,000 and that of helpers to Rs 20,000. He says that in the present salary, he is facing a lot of trouble in running his family.
The protesting women say that during Corona they were giving rations to people from door to door, giving primary education, but still, they are not being heard. One of the protesters told that during the Corona period, he was made to do a lot of work. The houses where deaths were taking place were sent for survey, but they were neither given masks nor provided sanitizers. During this, he also played the role of the doctor.
BJP MP from Delhi Pravesh Sahib Singh Verma took a dig at the Delhi government on this. He tweeted and wrote, “Kejriwal also has the budget to pay ₹ 15,000 per month to the Maulanas in Delhi, but throughout the Corona period, the mothers and sisters of Anganwadi were engaged day and night in corona vaccination to save the public, But Kejriwal has neither the time nor the budget to listen to them.
