Anganwari workers staged protest, demand hike in honorarium

Srinagar, Mar 24: Scores of Asha and Anganwari workers held a protest march here on Monday to press for their various demands.

The protestors marched towards Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s Gupkar residence to mark their protest against the pending demands.

Amid slogans in favour of their demands, the aggrieved said that they are surviving on meager wages and demanded that their monthly honorarium should be hiked.

“We are taking two thousand rupees as the monthly honorarium which is a joke in these times. Amid the inflation, we are unable to feed our families, and there are many families where our workers are breadwinners. There was no major step taken by the government or no discussion about us amid the Assembly secession to address our demands,” said an aggrieved worker.

The workers said that they do all the work and are the backbone of the health department, but they are being "neglected." They said that amid COVID and other challenging times, they were on the frontline serving people. "However, when it comes to our demands, the government turns a blind eye," they said.

The aggrieved workers demanded that they be brought under the ambit of the Minimum Wage Act so that they could support their families.

“Even an unskilled laborer earns around Rs 20000 monthly. We are made to do everything from vaccination to other official work, but when it comes to our issues, we are forced to come on roads,” said another worker.

The aggrieved workers said the government should take serious measures to provide them with proper wages so that they don’t have to hit the roads again.