Anganwadi workers of Maharashtra are on strike for more than 46 days demanding proper digital infrastructure for Anganwadi center, proper working hours and employment benefits.
The Ministry of Women and Child Development introduced a mobile application called “Poshan Tracker” under the Integrated Child Development scheme. The purpose of this mobile application is to track the health and nutrition of kids below the age of six, pregnant and lactating women through Anganwadi centers.
To implement this scheme, the government also recruited huge numbers of women as Anganwadi workers. Though the centers provide mobile phones for the workers, they faced lots of issues in implementing this digital format.
Difficulties faced by workers
The phone cannot support the updates of the Poshan application or it frequently gets malfunctioned. The women are supposed to enter data including pictures and videos with smartphones but they don’t get their internet data packs recharged.
In this situation many women buy smartphones with their own money, loan or EMI, as they get pressure from their seniors and don’t want to lose their job. The women sat on strike addressing their difficulties and the Bombay High court directed the Maharashtra government in April 2023 to provide 1.6 lakh mobile phones to the Anganwadi workers. But the women claimed they didn’t get any till now.
The women also condemned that they are regularly asked to do work beyond their working hours to maintain the records both online and offline. So it is hard for them to manage their family and work. Addressing these issues the women started their protest on December 3.
The government also terminated approximately 200 Anganwadi workers from Amaravati and Pune. But the women are still protesting for nearly 46 days.
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