On the notice issued by the department to Anganwadi workers, state president of Anganwadi workers association Rekha Negi said that it is completely unfair to give them such notices repeatedly by the department.
According to the state president of Anganwadi Association, Rekha Negi, “We have been issued notices several times but we are not going anywhere without any settlement with the government.
The rumours of terminating other Anganwadi workers are spread across the state so that our protest can be weakened and then ultimately we give up and return to our work with a lousy allowance. The department cannot fire any women from Anganwadi from any district.” One of the Anganwadi workers Deepa Chaudhary said, “When we have already informed weeks ago that we are going on an indefinite strike to fight for our rights, how they can send us the notice with the warning of terminating us from our jobs.
Isn’t it a violation of human rights? Don’t we have the right to even raise our voices in this country? I don’t hear men get termination notice when they go on a strike, do they have permission to fight for their rights and we don’t.
Government says “Beti Padao Beti Bachao” but they don’t even care enough to communicate to the “beti” of their state for more than 55 days.”
Another Anganwadi worker Pinky Thapliyal added, “We thought that watching the women of their state going on a fast unto death strike, the government will at least initiate the conversation to know what we expect from them but it’s like we just do not exist.”
“We have taken out rallies, we have done candle march, we have been on protest for around two months and doing fast unto death for more than two weeks but there is no initiation of any talk from the government and they expect us to return to our job with their issued notice.
According to our State Women Empowerment and Child Development minister Rekha Arya, we work just for three hours whereas we have at least six working hours.
Therefore if the department will assure us that we'll not have to work just for three hours, will we ask for raise in our allowance nor will we do a single job after those three hours”, said the protesting Anganwadi worker Sarojini Anthwal.
On terminating the services of Anganwadi workers, the District Program Officer (DPO) Akhilesh Mishra had recently said that it is the duty of the department to ask them to return to their jobs but for terminating the service of any Anganwadi worker, a standard procedure will be followed by the department.
It is pertinent to mention here that for the past three days Anaganwadi workers Basanta Rawat and Madhurvadni Tiwari are on fast unto death while many protestors have been admitted to hospital by the police.
