Standing in a line of four, toddlers of three to five years of age walked up to their teacher, asking her to unscrew their plastic water bottle as the Chennai sun roared at 34 degrees in the month of April.
Devika, 39, has been working at the Anganwadi centre in Taramani in South Chennai for the past 5 years as a helper. Since the head of the centre, is away attending official duties at the Chennai Corporation, Devika is single handedly attending to 20 children from 8.30 AM to 3.30 PM.
"The children are here by 9 AM and they are provided breakfast. Around 12.30 PM they get their lunch which is generally rice and sambar. I am in charge of cooking for them," says Devika.
In return for her seven hour work shift, six days a week, Devika receives a paltry salary of Rs. 5000 as an Anganwadi helper. Her superior, receives Rs. 8000 a month. Apart from the salary, there is little else she receives from the government despite Anganwadi workers being recognized as foot soldiers of the Ministry of Women and Child Development. Devika and over 13 lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers like her provide nutritional supplements to pregnant and lactating women across more than 15 lakh centers in India.
Ask her about the Aganwadi Karyakatri Bima Yojna (AKBY) launched in 2004 to provide children of Anganwadi workers with Rs. 300 per quarter from standard 9 to 12; Devika boastfully smoothens her crushed eye brows to say, "I have paid every single fees of my son and daughter. I never received anything from the government."
The Anganwadi Karyakatri Bima Yojna created with Life Insurance Corporation of India provides coverage to workers and helpers. In case of natural death, the nominee mentioned by the insuree will receive Rs. 30,000, Rs. 75,000 in case of accidental death. It also provides a nominal amount of Rs. 20,000 for treatment of six types of invasive cancer.
“The medical insurance is only for heavy weight diseases, it barely makes any difference to me or my family,” says Devika.
While Devika is aware of the existence of an insurance of sort, P. Karapan, an Anganwadi worker for the past 20 years in Telegana's Kamareddy district, has never heard of such a thing.
"A vast majority of the anganwadi workers never get enrolled for the insurance. Their names are never passed to the centre by the district collectorate. The insurance company has also put a foot down saying they will not provide scholarship fund to more than 16% workers in a district, despite the scholarship being a part of AKBY," says Hemalata, current president of CITU and former secretary of All India Anganwadi Federation.
The premium for the insurance is Rs. 280, Rs 100 is borne by the Government of India, Rs. 100 by LIC and Rs. 80 by the insuree. The Rs. 80 was recently waivered in April last year.
Despite the AKBY insurance being launched in 2004, there exists no data on how many people benefit from this group scheme. Repeated attempts to get data from Life Insurance Corporation zonal office in Chennai was turned futile as the officials seemed clueless about which unit of LIC handles this particular scheme. However, an officer at the Madurai divisional office confirmed that AKBY is a part of the Aam Admi Bima Yojna which was created by merging several group schemes in 2007.
Non- availability of insurance still doesn't explain why the Anganwadi scheme launched in 1975 under the Integrated Child and Development Services program, still does not consider anganwadis as government workers.
The government officially calls the amount paid to anganwadi workers as honorarium and not salary. A Press Information Bureau notice clearly notifies anganwadi workers and helpers as 'honorary workers’ doing a part-time job despite their seven hour work routine. Their non-recognition as employees’ means providing them with benefits like provident fund becomes a dicey area. However, on May 7 this year, Union labour minister Bhandaru Dattareya announced extension of Employees' State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) and Employees' Provident Fund organisation (EPFO) to the Anganwadi, ASHA and mid-day meal scheme workers in the country.
"A meeting was called by the labour ministry and union leaders where we asked for recognition of scheme workers as employees but the government has not made any move on that. The Employees Provident Fund organization has clarified that they cannot make a move unless the government lists anganwadis as employees and mentions their responsibilities. So the entire announcement before media for introducing provident fund was a gimmick. We have been tabling this proposal for several months now without any concrete move by the government," says Hemlata.
“I am aware of the insurance and scholarship but you see more than 90% of us don’t receive any of these benefits. I have single handedly managed my daughter’s education,” says Tanushree Banerjee, who has been working as an Anganwadi for over 20 years at the Mogra project in Hooghly district of West Bengal.
“As per central rules Rs. 3000 of an Anganwadi worker’s salary is born by the Government of India and the rest by the State. They receive an increment of 3% in gaps of five years,” says an administrative officer at the Integrated Child Development Services in Chennai.
When the set minimum wages per day of Tamil Nadu government was compared with that of an Anganwadi worker in the State, it was found that an average Anganwadi worker earns Rs. 4 less than a labour in silk twisting industry but slightly more than the cotton ginning, pressing and cotton waste industry.
"Our work is not only in the centre looking after children but also outside when we go on village rounds visiting pregnant and lactating mothers, weighing newborns and handing out nutritional supplements," says Tanushree. “We receive only nine holidays a year. Even on Sundays the centre is open when polio has to be given to children and yet my pay is only Rs. 4300.”
Hemlata points out the ginger steps the Centre has been taking, to slowly shift its responsibilities from execution to a governing body. “In 1975, the sharing of responsibilities between the Centre and State was 90% and 10% respectively. Then the BJP government abolished the planning commission and made it 60% and 40% of the total cost. However, the 60% is only for sharing capital expenditure which is nominal and includes only building centres. It is pushing the State to bear the entire burden of the revenue expenditure,” says Hemlata.
In a statement to the press in December 2015, Maneka Gandhi, Minister of Women and Child Development said the government is going to construct 50,000 anganwadi centers each year. While there exists no public data on how many have been constructed since then, there have also not been any statements proclaiming in this area by the current Prime Minister.
As per a Press Information Bureau notification dated March, 2013, only 30% centres operate from their own building while others function from rented spaces or community buildings.
While the governement's mission is to increase the number of centers, it is cutting back on expenditures on social security. The newly made social security code published on March 17 by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, aims to amalgate four labour codes, one of them being code on social security and welfare. It will primarily affect group scheme workers like Anganwadis whereby they will receive only one form of subsidy, insurance etc under an over archaic social security scheme.
"Implementation at this stage itself is so bad, I have no idea what will happen when the Social Security and Welfare code is rolled out," adds Hemlata.
