Bengaluru – Bowing to the demands from thousands of Anganawadi workers in Karnataka, the State Government has raised their honorarium to Rs. 8,000 per month. Currently, Anganawadi workers are paid Rs. 6,000 and helpers are paid Rs. 3,000.
The decision was taken at a meeting held this morning at Vidhana Soudha that was chaired by Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and attended by Women and Child Development and Kannada and Culture Minister Umashree, representatives from Karnataka State Anganawadi Workers’ Association and a few Labour Unions.
The meeting was specially called to discuss the issues raised by the Anganawadi workers’ groups.
As per the decision taken at the meeting, the honorarium was hiked by Rs. 1,000 in addition to the Rs. 1,000 hiked in this year’s State Budget. In all, the Anganawadi workers will henceforth receive a monthly honorarium of Rs. 8,000. The Anganawadi Assistants will get Rs. 500 more and their honorarium will be hiked from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 3,500 per month. Those who manage mini Anganawadis will get an honorarium hike of Rs. 500.
According to sources, initially the CM agreed for a hike between Rs. 250 and Rs. 500 citing financial constraints. However, this did not go down well with the Anganawadi Association leaders who demanded a monthly honorarium of Rs. 10,000. They told the CM that if their demands were not fulfilled, they would be forced to go on strike again.
Finally, the CM agreed for Rs. 1,000 hike. The Associations were told that there would be no hike next year and an undertaking has been taken from them that they would not strike work.
It may be recalled here that urging the government to fulfil their demands, the Anganawadi workers had observed a 24×7 strike from March 20 to 24 in the State capital.
This post was published on April 10, 2017 7:01 pm