On New Year’s Day, when holiday-goers from Mumbai lazily headed back into the city, thousands of women across Maharashtra, many clad in pink saris and salwar kameez, packed their bags to march to the State capital. Two days later, they met their fellow anganwadi workers, who have been staging a protest at Azad Maidan since December 4, 2023. Their demands include being treated on a par with government employees with respect to receiving benefits such as gratuity and pension. They are also seeking timely payment and new mobile phones on which their work depends.
The congested lanes of Dharavi, where anganwadi centres have been functioning for years. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
“What is there to be happy about this new year when our basic human rights have been ignored for years? We are treated as insignificant and kept in deprivation by every government in power,” says Sheikh Razia, 60, who travelled about 400 km by bus from Georai taluka in Beed district. She reached the protest site with a small cloth duffel bag with two sets of clothes. The bhakri (millet roti) and mango pickle that most women brought along lasted only for two days. They spread their sheets out at night to sleep on the maidan. Eventually, the toilets malfunctioned.
Maharashtra’s anganwadi workers and helpers — there is one each at every centre — have been on strike for 46 days now. They have been demanding basic nutrition for 65 lakh children, whose per-day food cost for two meals has been ₹8 a child since 2014. They want the food cost for malnourished children to be raised to ₹24 a day and for the rest of the children to be set at ₹16. They demand that rent for centres be at least ₹5,000-₹8,000 in metro cities; ₹3,000-₹5,000 in towns; and ₹1,000-₹3,000 in rural areas, up from the current flat ₹750.
Children play outside their homes in Mankhurd, Mumbai, as mothers worry about their future if the anganwadi centres continue to remain shut. | Photo Credit: Gautam Doshi
As of December 2023, Maharashtra has 1,10,465 anganwadi centres and 1,08,507 anganwadi workers, as per Poshan Tracker, a mobile-based application rolled out by the Ministry of Women and Child Development on March 1, 2021 for growth monitoring in children. Each anganwadi worker takes care of approximately 60 children, and seven pregnant or lactating women.
Puja Vijaykar, in her 30s, who is also from Georai taluka and came along with Razia for the protest, says she has to go door to door begging for pulses and cereals to run the anganwadi centre in her hut. “In villages, people help each other, but it is very shameful. We are only asking for a basic raise (from ₹10,000 to ₹26,000 for a worker, and ₹5,500 to ₹18,000 for a helper).” Salaries were raised last year, but payment is often delayed.
On January 12, Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers joined the strike, demanding revised salaries, on-time payment, and bonuses. While anganwadi workers work on child and maternal nutrition, ASHA workers work on the overall health of families.
An anganwadi worker’s home turned into an anganwadi centre in Dahanu taluka, Palghar, Maharashtra. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
The day of the mega strike
When they poured out of buses and trains in Mumbai on January 3, exiting the imposing Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), a UNESCO world heritage site, they crowded outside the headquarters of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) next door. Then, they walked a couple of metres to reach the triangular-shaped Azad Maidan, spread across 25 acres.
Roads were blocked, and traffic jammed. Amid the sloganeering: “rajya sarkar hai hai; kendra sarkar hai hai (State government, shame on you; Central government, shame on you)”, about 150 police personnel kept a watch; of them 100 were women. “The portion of Azad Maidan allotted for protests measures 7,000 sq ft, which can accommodate 8,000 people at a time. Since there were more than that number, it was difficult to manage. It is rare to see women protesting in such large numbers,” says a policewoman.
Dharni Rupesh Chowdhuri, a new mother in Dahanu who was dependent on the anganwadi centre throughout her pregnancy, doesn’t know why the centre near her village is not functioning for over a month. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray and party MP Sanjay Raut met the women. Addressing the workers, Thackeray took a dig at the ruling alliance in the State, calling them “insensitive”. “I have come before you today as your elder brother and not a politician. You have been on strike for the last one month. Has the government resolved the issues you have been facing for years? If we didn’t have traitors in our government, then we wouldn’t be facing this crisis today,” he said, though not addressing why nothing was done during his time as Chief Minister.
Later, State Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar stopped by at the maidan. On Kesarkar’s request, Chief Minister Eknath Shinde met anganwadi representatives for 45 minutes. Almost all their demands were turned down, except that of the contributory pension, the amount of which will be decided upon in time. “The phones given to us in 2018 were of poor quality. They hang every time we try to upload documents on the Poshan Tracker. The Chief Minister dismisses this because he doesn’t have to use them on a daily basis,” says Shubha Shamim, president of the Anganwadi Karmachari Sanghatana, which is affiliated to the Centre of Indian Trade Unions.
Renuka Dalvi, who was born prematurely in Mumbai, caught up with developmental milestones following an anganwadi worker’s intervention. | Photo Credit: Gautam Doshi
The women held their ground, but within two days, the cost of tents, banners, and the stage at ₹1.5 lakh a day, caught up with them. Workers couldn’t afford to buy food. While the large-scale protest has ceased, the strike continues, and workers from Mumbai continue to visit Azad Maidan, voicing their demands.
On-ground in Mumbai
Mumbai has 927 anganwadi centres and 924 anganwadi workers; the suburbs have 4,220 centres and 4,197 workers. Only 40% of the centres have a drinking water source, compared with the State average of 44%. Data also reveal that 42% of the children visiting the centres (up to six years) were stunted, while 15% were severely or moderately underweight, and 5% (up to five years) were wasted.
A lane in Mankhurd’s Maharashtra Nagar, where workers run an anganwadi centre from a rented accommodation. | Photo Credit: Gautam Doshi
In the 16 anganwadi centres in rural and urban Maharashtra that The Hindu visited, most run from homes in urban slums, on the corridors of apartments or temples, or from the verandas of kutcha houses in villages. None is bigger than 10x8 square feet. Each of the centres has a minimum of 50 children, with some in villages caring for over 100 children. Most of the centres have not received the rent of ₹750 for months; some have waited for over two years for it. From localities in Mumbai such as Dharavi, Mankhurd, and Kandivali to hamlets in Dahanu and Talasari of Palghar district, the situation is the same.
The zigzagging lanes of Dharavi, Asia’s largest slum, lead to 35-year-old Shashikala Narayankar’s brown door with plastic flowers hanging over it and stickers of Hindu deities. She operates from a room that serves as both her home and an anganwadi centre, when the rest of the family of six is out for work. In the city’s unyielding monsoon, water enters the room and it is difficult to sit on the floor with 50 children. “I have been working for the past 15 years, of which 10 have been in this house. We want the government to visit our centres and understand how difficult it is to build a child’s physical and psychological health in such spaces,” she says. She stores toys and educational kits on the shelves of a common toilet next to the house.
A congregation of anganwadi workers at Maharashtra Nagar in Mankhurd, who have been on strike since December 4, 2023. | Photo Credit: Gautam Doshi
All that the children get as nutrition is boiled chana, says Asha Ganpat Sonavani, 65, who has been working as a helper for the past 40 years in an anganwadi centre in Dharavi. “We’ve seen the quality of food decline over the past 10 years, with inflation, and no change in the money given,” she says. Sonavani is worried because she will retire in two months without a pension. “I have no savings to support myself.”
In Siddhivinayak Society, on 90 Feet Road, Dharavi, anganwadi teacher Ranjana Gaidunkar, in her 40s, had rented out a house in the cooperative society for 11 years. For the past year, the owner has not renewed the lease because of the low rent. She has sat on the floor of the corridor with children, pregnant women, and lactating mothers just to run the centre. “Residents shout at us because it’s difficult for them to walk around when children sit here. In the summer, it is unbearable without a fan,” says Gaidunkar, who has four pregnant women, five lactating mothers, and 55 children in her centre.
Shravani Mangesh Haram stands in a corridor outside a temple from where she runs an anganwadi centre in Mankhurd. | Photo Credit: Gautam Doshi
In Janupada locality of Kandivali, Sandhya Wadmari, 45, runs her centre from a 10x6 square foot residential room with 40 children. “I want to ask the CM’s wife if she can run her house with the untimely salary of anganwadi workers. This government has crores of funds to split parties and form alliances, but not a penny for children and caregivers,” she says. She has been working for 28 years now.
In Maharashtra Nagar, Mankhurd, anganwadi worker Radhabai Kengar, 47, who has 70 children under her care, cannot use electricity as the ₹750 she gets as rent will not afford her that “luxury”. “Every year, I have to look for a new place because nobody wants to give us a space at that rent,” she says.
Anganwadi worker Ranjana Gaidunkar has to sit outside the locked room that she is supposed to get as her centre because the owner doesn’t let her occupy the room at ₹750 per month as rent. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
Shravani Mangesh Haram, 33, has been running her centre with 60 children in a corridor outside a temple in Mankhurd for the last three years without water and electricity. “The last rent I received was in November 2022. The quality of food is extremely poor, with pebbles in pulses, and low quality spices that turn food dark. Instead of oil we are given sugar,” she says.
Traversing the rural landscape
In Maharashtra’s villages, most anganwadi workers refuse to speak openly about their problems, as they say they face pressure from officials at the offices of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme under which the anganwadis run. “We have been threatened with job loss if we protest or speak out,” say at least six workers.
Gulab Jayram Bhoir has been running a mini-anganwadi centre from the porch of her kutcha house for years in Orzar Pada, Ranshet village, Dahanu taluka, Palghar. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
Bindu Waghmare (name changed), an anganwadi worker, says, “In 2014, the food cost per child was increased from ₹4 per day to ₹8 per day, but it is too little to get quality food. Earlier, too, we couldn’t source good ingredients, but now it is inedible. Five months ago, I had to throw out two sacks of chana that had worms wriggling in them,” says Waghmare, who has 112 children in her care. She runs the centre on the veranda of her home in Talasari taluka, Palghar district.
In Ranshet village in Dahanu taluka, Palghar district, Gulab Jayram Bhoir, 45, has been running a mini-anganwadi centre on the porch of her kutcha house for 55 children and 15 pregnant women. A mini-anganwadi is an extension of a regular centre, with only one person running the space and managing the cooking too. “About 20 years ago, I received training in singing and teaching, even though I have no school education,” she says.
Anganwadi workers operate from a 8x10 square feet room in Dharavi, which is also shared by tenants who live there with their family. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
Her initial salary was ₹50-80 a month; 10 years later this was raised to ₹2,000. “It was only in 2023, four months before the strike, that my salary climbed to ₹7,000,” she says. Bhoir is hopeful that some day the government will pay her arrears for the rent due for some years now. Her husband and four sons are tailors and farmers.
Government absence
Since the strike, NGOs like Aroehan that work for rural communities have been going door to door to check the weight of children and health of lactating and pregnant mothers. Sudhir Ghatal, project community mobiliser with the organisation based in Palghar, has been travelling 25-50 km in the hills to visit hamlets daily, distributing food to mothers and counselling them, during the strike. “We are currently working in six gram panchayats of Dahanu. There are 2,500 children between 0 and 6 months, 300 pregnant, and 250 lactating women on our list,” he says.
Sudhir Ghatal, project community mobiliser with NGO Aroehan based in Palghar, has been travelling 25-50 km in the hills to visit hamlets daily, distributing food to mothers and counselling them, during the strike. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
In Asvi Patil Pada of Dahanu, Dharni Rupesh Chowdhuri, 22, is a new mother. Her child turned six months old this week. She doesn’t know why the anganwadi near her village has not been functioning for over a month. “Anganwadi workers were looking after my nutrition and medicines throughout my pregnancy and also after the birth of my daughter. I hope they start working soon,” she says. Several women have stories to tell of the support they receive from anganwadi centres. Some tell of how a worker caught a child’s developmental delay early, and others of what they learn at the centres.
On January 10, Dr. D.L. Karad, chief coordinator of the Maharashtra Rajya Kamgar Karmachari Sangathan Sanyukt Kriti Samiti, said anganwadi and ASHA workers would try to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Nashik on January 12. Ahead of the visit, Dr. Karad was put under house arrest by the police. The anganwadi and ASHA workers, who had gathered at the CITU office on the morning of January 12, were detained at the office premises. They were released only after 2.30 p.m., once the PM had left.
Since the start of the strike, anganwadi workers in Dahanu have taken up small jobs in agricultural lands to make ends meet. | Photo Credit: Purnima Sah
Rubal Agarwal, Commissioner, ICDS, Mumbai, says most of the demands of the workers come under the Central government’s policy decisions. “The [Maharashtra] Women and Child Development Department has already increased the building rent of anganwadi centres in metro, urban, and rural areas to ₹8,000, ₹6,000, and ₹2,000, respectively. Workers’ remuneration had increased from ₹8,000 to ₹10,000 in April 2023. We have already passed the tender to issue 1,10,000 mobile phones, one at each anganwadi centre in the State,” she says.
The workers say that they have not received any written communication on the revised rent and continue to strike every day across the State. On January 24, another massive protest has been planned, involving government employees, in support of anganwadi and ASHA workers.
