Nearly 10,000 Anganwadi workers demonstrated in Nagpur against the government’s delay in announcing a raise in honorarium and pension scheme which the state chief minister had promised on 26th October. The demonstration was held by the Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Kriti Samiti with the CITU and AITUC mobilising most of the women. The other two unions sent their non-anganwadi leaders and the HMS could not mobilise at all.
The rally began from Bal Bhawan near Shukrawari Lake and culminated at the Vidhan Bhawan. The workers demonstrated very militantly and raised slogans against the government which had promised to raise their honorarium and implement the pension scheme on the 9th day of their indefnite strike. Rameshchandra Dahiwade, Shubha Shamim, Anna Sawant, Armaity Irani, Sushila Bhagat, Pratibha Shinde, Amrut Meshram, Asai and Dilip Deshpande, all CITU leaders, addressed the Rally. Rajaram Ozare, a CPI (M) MLA, promised to raise the demand of anganwadi workers in the state assembly.
AITUC leaders Sukumar Damale, Shyam Kale, Dilip Utane, Ram Baheti and Ganpatrao also addressed the gathering.
It was announced that the Rally would not be wound up until the State Minister for Women & Child Development came out and accepted the memorandum and took the delegation to meet the new CM, Prithviraj Chavan. The workers became very restless and prepared themselves to break the cordon and march toward Vidhan Bhawan. The Police too, was seen desperately trying to contact the minister. Eventually, they could contact her and Varsha Gaikwad, the WCD Minister came out and announced that her department was committed to fulfilling the promises made by the previous minister. The workers were not convinced. Finally, she assured the rallyists that she would try to meet the CM with their delegation. The delegation went to meet the CM who gave his assurances, but the workers were still not convinced. They demanded that the Government should take a concrete and reasonable decision on the spot or the demonstration could be converted into an indefinite strike. This decision could not be taken then and after demonstrating militantly for some time, the rally wound up.
The rally condemned the state government’s decision to hike the salaries and perks of MLAs and ministers by nearly Rs 30,000 while the honorarium of anganwadi workers was raised only by Rs 250 and that of helpers by a mere Rs 100. The rally condemned this decision and a decision was taken to intensify the struggle.
(Report from Shubha Shamim)
Courtesy: www.citucentre.org/
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