Tuesday, 28 September 2021 | PNS | Dehradun
The Anganwadi workers have announced to lock offices of all the district programme officers (DPOs) in Uttarakhand to stage protest against the state government. The president of the Anganwadi workers union Rekha Negi said that the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami failed to take their demands to the recent cabinet meeting despite his assurance to the representatives of the association during their protest earlier this month. She said, “We believed his words but I think one cannot trust the government here.
Our demands are being neglected for over two years now and all the government representatives have just fooled us with false assurances.” She said that most of the women in Anganwadi are abandoned, divorced, widows and single mothers who work throughout the year for various departments with several additional projects but they are still underpaid. Talking about the association’s main demands, Negi said, “We demanded the government to make it clear whether we fall in the category of skilled workers or unskilled workers and then work must be allotted to us on its basis. We also demanded to give us extra work of our department concerned only. If we are being given projects of other departments which are not associated with women and child welfare, we must be paid accordingly.” She said that Anganwadi workers are given multiple projects of various departments at the same time and they are expected to complete them on time without any benefits and proper allowance.
She stated, “All we want is a proper working system to work across the state with proper working conditions which is apparently too much to ask from our government.” Negi said that all the workers will lock the DPOs offices in all districts and protest against the government for their apathy towards them.
