Contrary to the reports in the media about the services of Anganwadi workers on strike being terminated, the state president of Anganwadi workers association, Rekha Negi said that no one has been fired from their services.
According to Rekha Negi, “We have been issued notices multiple times but no Anganwadi worker has been fired from her job. It is just a way to scare naive girls and women to make them return to their job. We cannot be fired like that by the department.”
“These rumours are spread to weaken our protest and influence Anganwadi workers to quit fighting for their rights and return to their jobs with the same petty allowance. This is too low for the department. On Sunday night, there were people who were harassing us but no police personnel were there. Have we become so insignificant for the authorities that they no longer feel the need to protect the women of their city?” asked Anganwadi worker Meena Rawat. According to Sarojini Anthwal, one of the Anganwadi workers, “Well we have actually no hope from the officials of Women Empowerment and Child Development of Uttarakhand whose minister does not know about the work and working hours of an Anganwadi worker. If she thinks we work for just three hours then declare it as our official working hours so that we would be able to work elsewhere.”
On being asked about terminating the services of Anganwadi workers, the District Programme Officer (DPO) Akhilesh Mishra said, “To terminate anyone’s service, a standard procedure is followed by the department.
However ultimately we’ll have to consider the possibility of terminating the service of Anganwadi workers because it is the violation of Supreme Court orders according to which it is mandatory for the children under Anganwadi workers to get the nutritional food for 300 days. For now, we are just sending them the notice so that the return to their jobs.” He added that all the important work done by Anganwadi workers like vaccination of children, and providing nutritional food to kids is getting affected by the protest. It is pertinent to mention here that two more Anganwadi workers; Pushpa Adhikari and Shakuntala have been taken to the Coronation Hospital by police and Anganwadi protestors from Kotdwar, Suman Lakheda and Kusum Negi have joined fast unto death.