Anganbadi childcare workers in India are in their second week of a hunger strike to press for their demand for permanent employment, an 8 hour day, a minimum wage and benefits on par with other government workers in India. Anganbadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care program which relies solely on the work of the Anganbadi workers most of which are women. The urban poor in Delhi rely heavily on these services from pre-natal care to accessing information about immunization. Apart from looking after malnutritioned children, poor and expecting mothers they make birth and death registrations and recently they also have been assigned election duties for which they receive no additional remuneration. These workers are paid a mere 5000 Rupees ($100AUS) per month for supposedly being volunteer workers. Their struggle has been met with violence from police, and the health of 5 of the hunger striking workers is now starting to deteriorate.
Anganbadi childcare workers in India are in their second week of a hunger strike to press for their demand for permanent employment, an 8 hour day, a minimum wage and benefits on par with other government workers in India. Anganbadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care program which relies solely on the work of the Anganbadi workers most of which are women. The urban poor in Delhi rely heavily on these services from pre-natal care to accessing information about immunization. Apart from looking after malnutritioned children, poor and expecting mothers they make birth and death registrations and recently they also have been assigned election duties for which they receive no additional remuneration. These workers are paid a mere 5000 Rupees ($100AUS) per month for supposedly being volunteer workers. Their struggle has been met with violence from police, and the health of 5 of the hunger striking workers is now starting to deteriorate.
