Several more anganwadi workers received termination notices over the weekend for being an “active part of the strike, agitation and dharna”, with the Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union (DSAWHU) reporting that the number was over 70 till late Sunday afternoon.
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Hundreds of workers and helpers have been on strike since January 31 with the primary demand of a substantial increase in pay. They have also been demanding that they be given the status of government employees — currently, they are considered honorary workers — along with benefits that accompany it. On March 5, 27 of the workers who have been on strike received termination notices and around 3,000 received show cause notices.
Now, those who had received show cause notices on March 5 have begun receiving termination notices. “They will be going out in hundreds… The directions are to issue termination notices to all those who had been issued show cause notices on March 5 and had not rejoined their centres by March 9,” said an official of the Women and Child Development department.
WCD Minister Kailash Gahlot did not respond to calls and messages seeking comment.
This comes after the DSAWHU temporarily suspended its strike after the L-G’s office issued a notification on March 9 declaring the services provided by anganwadi workers and helpers as ‘essential’ and prohibiting their strike for a period of six months by invoking the Haryana Essential Services Maintenance Act. On Saturday, 15 workers and helpers received termination notices and on Sunday, as of 4 pm, the DSAWHU reported that another 35 received these notices over the course of the day.
The notices state that “the ICDS services in Delhi have been severely affected due to prolonged and illegal strike led by some anganwadi workers (AWWs) and anganwadi helpers (AWHs), who have obstructed the ICDS Scheme which is essentially required for children (including severely malnourished), pregnant and lactating women in the community”. They state that the worker concerned “was not attending her duties on the pretext of the strike” and has “deliberately attempted to disrupt the functioning on the ICDS scheme”.
“We suspect the department is going to give termination to even more women in the coming days… On Monday, the union will file an appeal in the High Court against all these illegal terminations… The 22,000 anganwadi workers are going to boycott the AAP in upcoming MCD elections… families and neighbours will also boycott it,” said Vrishali Shruti, media coordinator of the union.