By Maya Palit
Earlier in the week, anganwadi workers in Karnataka announced an indefinite strike to protest against low wages, particularly because they had been recruited to work for the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and other schemes, which meant their workload had increased without a proportionate increase in salaries. But on Thursday, the workers called off the strike, claiming that the state government had acknowledged their demands, and adding that they would resume it if the Chief Minister didn’t follow through with the promise to increase their minimum wage to Rs. 10,000.
In a ridiculous turn of events, though, reports are now surfacing of a bunch of FIRs that were filed against leading members of the anganwadi workers, and organisers of the strike. Seven people have cases registered against them for failing to stick to the conditions on the permit for the strike, which specified it would be a peaceful demonstration in Freedom Park, Bengaluru. Here’s the thing though — it was a peaceful strike attended by nearly 10,000 workers, but it ended up spilling onto the streets and disrupting traffic, and apparently that’s enough to harass the workers.
The real story might be even more complicated, as reports claim that some of the FIRs were filed on Monday, the first day of the protest, but news of them only broke later in the week. The FIRs accuse the anganwadi association president S Varalakshmi, amongst other office bearers, of wrongful restraint, unlawful assembly, and disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant.
But Varalakshmi assured the press that these FIRs wouldn’t affect motivation for the strike in an interview with News Minute: “The news of FIR has been deliberately leaked late and I have been flooded with calls from my members. It’s clear that the government is trying to demotivate us. We will not be deterred by all this and will continue our fight.” It looks like it will take a lot more than the sneaky ruses that state officials have apparently tried to deploy to quell these protests, and it’s about time anganwadi workers were given their dues for their immense contributions to the child education schemes.