The State Government will not pay any remuneration for the two months during which Anganwadi workers were on strike. No allowance was promised to the workers for these months after they ended their protest, said the director of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Jharna Kamthan.
Recently, the State president of Anganwadi workers association Rekha Negi said that the State Government deducted their two months allowance despite the promise made by Dehradun mayor Sunil Uniyal 'Gama' as the Government's representative before the suspension of their two months long protest.
Negi said, "It is quite insensitive of the Government to take such action. Hundreds of Anganwadi workers are widows, single mothers, and abandoned women, and deducting their allowance during the lockdown in the State is wrong and cannot be justified by the state administration."
However, ICDS director Jharna Kamthan does not agree that the Government promised no deduction in the remuneration of two months. "It is a false claim by the Anganwadi workers that the Government promised to pay allowance for their protest period of two months," said Kamthan. According to her, the Anganwadi workers receive honorarium for their job so there will be deductions for their absence from the work too. "It has always been this way with the Anganwadi workers. Even few years back, they staged a protest for few a weeks and during that time the allowance was deducted too," added Kamthan.
On the other hand, Negi stated that if the government will maintain such an “autocratic” attitude towards the Anganwadi workers, they will not work amid the situation caused by COVID-19 pandemic.
"I hope the government will pay our allowances soon or we will be bound to stop supporting government during the current crisis," added Negi. However, Kamthan had stated earlier that the Anganwadi workers cannot refuse working during the coronavirus crisis.