Unpaid for 39 months, anganwadi workers still parented our kids

NT Correspondent
Bengaluru:

Members of Karnataka Rajya Anganwadi Karyakarteyara Mahamandli say that almost 190 employees in 21 anganwadi training centres across 19 districts in Karnataka have not received their salaries or any remuneration in the last 39 months.
While speaking to media persons here on Thursday, the committee said they were protesting against the exploitive treatment of employees at the anganwadi training centres by the government. The government had shut down the training due to Covid and refused to pay the employees that were working in these training centres.

The government has also decided to permanently shut down the 21 centres and set up 4 new centres for the training of anganwadi workers, putting the existing jobs in jeopardy. G. R. Shivshankar, the president of the committee, demanded the government pay the employees' dues.

They also asked the authorities to pay the gratuity, which is the "fundamental right" of the employees. T. N. Chitnish from Davangere explained that the government had promised to assign new batches after the lockdown, but instead of doing that, they have decided to shut down the centres entirely and are refusing to pay their salaries for the last three years.

"They were not even paid a minimum wage and now the government is denying them even that," said one of the members, Shivshankar. "This is a humanitarian issue. We demand the government pay the employees their salaries and ensure they do not face the threat of unemployment," he added.