[Reader-list] RTF (Right to Food) Articles - 15

[Rakesh Iyer]

Source: The Hindu

Date: Sunday, Dec 04, 2005

Link: http://www.hinduonnet.com/mag/2005/12/04/stories/2005120400080400.htm

Article:

* Struggle for their rights *

KATHYAYINI CHAMARAJ
 Despite the many challenges they face, anganwadi workers help the State
achieve many of the Millennium Development Goals.

AT the all-India rally of thousands of anganwadi workers (AWWs) and helpers
in Bangalore recently, Sakamma (name changed), from a far-off district of
Karnataka, was seen eating rice and *dal*, which she had packed 24 hours
earlier. She had come paying her own bus-fare, but she could not afford to
buy food from a hotel. That the silicon plateau Bangalore, where some pay
Rs. 1,000 for a single meal, was the venue for this meet helped throw up the
contrasts between two Indias. Sakamma came hoping that adding strength to
the AWWs' numbers would make the government pay heed to their demands.

 Myriad tasks

 AWWs are the modern-day Durgas, who with their mythical nine pairs of hands
do myriad tasks for the government. In charge of the Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS) Scheme, they are the grassroots workers who help
the State reach many of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They work
to reduce infant and maternal mortality and provide supplementary nutrition
to prevent malnutrition among mothers and pre-school children. In India, all
these indices are among the highest in the world. They register all births
and deaths and provide pre-school education to all three-to-six-year-olds.
All these tasks are essential for lifting India from its abysmal 127th
position in the UNDP's Human Development Index.

AWWs also perform a number of tasks unconnected with the ICDS. They conduct
surveys for various departments; form self-help groups of women; support
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan; encourage small savings; create awareness about AIDS,
TB and social evils like dowry, detect bogus ration cards and also do the
more mundane tasks of bringing crowds and arranging flowers, food and tea
for every village function.

Despite performing these important government tasks, they are not government
servants, but "voluntary workers" who earn an "honorarium" of Rs. 1,000,
with helpers receiving Rs. 500. (Some States supplement the salaries.) "Many
AWWs do not receive even the meagre salary and increments on time," says S.
Varalakshmi, Secretary of the Karnataka chapter of the All-India Federation
of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH).

The paradox is that AWWs look after the children of the poorest landless and
agricultural workers, but are unable to feed their own children or send them
to school. These women cannot be expected to be "social workers" because
they are often widowed, deserted or destitute women, badly in need of
employment. In view of all this, the major demand of the AWWs is to be
recognised as government employees. There are about 7,00,000 AWWs in the
country with an equal number of helpers. Thirty years after the ICDS was
initiated in 1975, even their meagre wages have reached their current level
only due to the long-standing struggles of their unions.

 Need for day care

 "Universal provision of day-care services for 0-6 year children are
imperative in India, also because, in the unorganised sector, where around
96 per cent of the working women in the country are employed, they don't get
any maternity leave or child care facilities," says K. Hemalata, All-India
Secretary of AIFAWH.

Yet, the ICDS currently reaches only 34 million, or a third, of the total
160 million children in the country, says a report prepared by Jean Drèze
and Shonali Sen, for the National Advisory Council. There are just 6,00,000
anganwadis as against 14,00,000 habitations in rural areas alone. Noting
this inadequacy, the Supreme Court ruled in the Right to Food case in
November 2001 that there should be an ICDS centre in every habitation. But
this will not help, if the new centres are going to be more of the same kind
that exist today.

Many AWCs have no proper buildings or furniture, lack safe drinking water,
toilets, vessels, teaching aids, toys and playgrounds. Despite this, AWWs
are expected to perform the miracle of providing total personality
development and education of the children of illiterate parents.

But AIFAWH is against the opening of pre-primary schools attached to primary
schools under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). Varalakshmi says, "The same
resources could be used to strengthen the infrastructure of existing
anganwadis for providing quality pre-school education instead of creating
two parallel and competing but weak institutions".

 End educational discrimination

 Baragur Ramachandrappa, noted Kannada litterateur, speaking at the
conference, reiterated the need to strengthen and universalise anganwadis to
bring an end to the educational discrimination in the country.

Noted economist Jayati Ghosh, speaking at the conference, praised the ICDS
scheme for being the "largest, cheapest and most efficient of its kind in
the world". Efficient it has to be, for how else can one provide more than
300 feeding days in the year with as little infrastructure, resources and
support as the AWWs get?

The AWWs are today's miracle women. They are often given irregular,
inadequate and unwholesome food supplies, and often no money for fuel, and
are expected to dish up something six days a week and wipe out the 50 per
cent malnutrition among children.

Additionally, "AWWs are caught in the snare of globalisation. The
government's reluctance to regularise them as government employees and also
its attempts at privatising the anganwadi centres (AWCs) are all of a
piece," says V.J.K. Nair, of CITU.

AIFAWH is also opposing the handing over of the management of AWCs to
the *panchayati
raj *and *nagarapalika *institutions. While this would appear to be an
anachronism in this age, Hemalata says, "Local bodies currently do not have
proper powers or finances. If they can be strengthened to provide better
facilities to AWCs, we welcome it. But in the absence of proper service
rules for the AWWs, many cases of sexual harassment by the *panchayat
pradhans *have been reported, when AWWs are asked to get the
*pradhan's *signature
to get their honorarium or annual leave sanctioned". Varalakshmi echoes the
need for "a united voice and joint fight at the national level" in support
of the AWWs' struggle for institutionalising the ICDS. In this regard, one
crore signatures have been obtained on a memorandum submitted to the HRD
Minister from the communities which benefit from the AWCs.

The National Advisory Council has estimated that Rs. 17,000 crores is
required to universalise the ICDS, and another Rs. 16,500 crores if the
workers are to be regularised as government servants. This is still 0.6 per
cent of GDP. Dr. Ghosh notes that just the increase in the defence
expenditure has been twice this amount in the last two years. And contrary
to doomsday prophecies when such amounts are asked to be spent on the social
sectors, this increase in defence expenditure has neither led to inflation
nor made the government bankrupt! Also, by using AWWs as "unpaid labour" for
various tasks unconnected with the ICDS, the Government is already saving
Rs. 1,000 crores! And if only the government would restore the tax:GDP ratio
to its 1990-91 level, it could fully provide for the ICDS, the midday meal
and employment guarantee schemes.

Considering the benefits to the state from the work of AWWs, their demands
are truly "demands on behalf of the nation and not on behalf of themselves,"
as Dr. Ghosh averred.

*(The All-India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH) held
its 5th Annual Conference in Bangalore between November 8 and 11, 2005.) *