Concrete welfare measures continue to evade Anganwadis, ASHA and Mid-Day Meal workers
Despite the crucial service provided by ASHA, mid-day meal and Anganwadi workers across India’s debilitated regions, their key demands to be recognised as government workers and not scheme-based workers or volunteers have not been met so far.
Dr K R Shyam Sundar
Published on: 29 March 2025, 12:39 pm
BROADLY, CENTRAL and state governments have provided for three kinds of jobs. First are permanent jobs arising out of existing posts for which funds exist. Second are temporary job positions financed through project funds to complete projects such bridges or roadlines. This type of employment creation started around the drought-prone decades of the 1970s in Maharashtra, which enabled women from marginalised communities to join work of their choice and also resulted in reduction in rural-urban migration such as through the Employment Creation Guarantee Scheme.
In the mid-2000s, buoyed by the success of this model the UPA-I government started the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (‘MGNREG’). Governments provide the funds for such schemes to support health, education, nutrition and maternal health which are recurring long gestation projects and not one time projects like laying a road.
In 1975, the government of India created a programme called the Integrated Child Development Services (‘ICDS’) to combat child hunger and malnutrition. To implement this programme, it has been engaging women volunteers.
An anganwadi is sanctioned for a population of 1000 persons in a village or district, and the anganwadi worker is accompanied by a sevika (worker) and a helper, both women. The anganwadis perform significant social functions such as planning for implementation of the ICDS programme. This includes, village mapping, building rapport with the community, conducting community surveys and enlisting beneficiaries, birth and death registration. They perform other administrative functions as well.
Governments provide the funds for such schemes to support health, education, nutrition and maternal health which are recurring long gestation projects and not one time projects like laying a road.
Accredited Social Health Activists (‘ASHA’) are another type of scheme-based workers. They are women workers aged between 25 to 45 years and resident of villages. They are literate and often educated up to at least 10th standard. They are selected through a rigorous process involving various community groups, self-help groups, Anganwadi institutions, the Block Nodal officer, the District Nodal officer, the village Health Committee and the Gram Sabha. They also undergo necessary training programmes. They cater to the health needs of women and children and thus act as a bridge between the public health system and the community. They perform various functions like recording birth and death data, making interventions in non-communicable diseases and communicable diseases, and take care of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health aspects, among others. They also monitor health, hygiene and sanitation in the community. Their services relate to universal immunisation, nutrition, basic sanitation and hygiene practices, and birth and pot-birth aspects like breast-feedingThe third category of scheme-based workers (‘SBW’) are the Mid-Day-Meal (‘MDMW’) scheme workers. On August 15, 1995 the Union government launched the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (‘NP-NSPE’) to enhance enrolment, retention, and attendance in schools while simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children.
From 2001, cooked food was served to every child in every government and government-aided primary school for a minimum duration of 200 days in a year. The Scheme has undergone several changes over the years.
SBW are called as ‘volunteers’ and not ‘workers” and they are paid ‘honorarium’ and not ‘wages/salary’
The CTUs claim that around one crore (100 lakhs or 10 million) scheme-based workers in India do not enjoy any form of labour market security. According to SEWA there were more than 3 crore home-based workers in India. These are arguably fantastic estimates though there is some truth in the fact that government data undercount these workers.
According to a government report, as of June 30, 2023 13.97 lakh operational anganwadi centres, 13.51 lakh anganwadi workers (‘AWW’) and 9.23 lakh anganwadi helpers (‘AWH’) were registered under the Poshan Tracker application, an IT application for the anganwadis. The Central and state governments do not share the ‘honorarium’ in any pre-fixed ratios. Both the Anganwadi workers and the Anganwadi centres will increase proportionate to the rise in population.
