By
B. Sivaraman
In
an unusual gesture, Prime Minister Modi chose to personally announce an
increase in honorarium for scheme workers like anganwadi workers and accredited
social health activists (ASHAs) on 21 September 2018. He even called it a
“landmark increase in remuneration”. However, the increase turned out to be
quite paltry in absolute terms.
Anganwadi
workers who were getting an honorarium of Rs.3,000 would get Rs.4,500 per month
and the mini-anganwadi workers, who single-handedly manage small anganwadis in
remote areas and who used to get Rs.2,200, would get Rs.3, 500.The anganwadi
helper who used to get Rs.1,500 per month would get Rs.2,250 from October. For
ASHA workers the recurring performance-based incentives would be doubled.
Why
are they paltry amounts? Just compare them with the national floor-level
minimum wage of Rs.176 per day notified on 1 July 2017, below which no minimum
wage should be fixed; the minimum wage for semi-skilled and skilled workers in
agriculture respectively at Rs.325 and Rs.353 fixed by the Centre on 3 April
2018; the minimum wage of Rs.500 per day fixed for security guards, who have
been reclassified as skilled workers, on 13 September 2016; the minimum wage
for non-farm workers in the central sphere of Rs.307–364 for semi-skilled
workers and Rs.334–395 for skilled workers respectively notified on 19 January
2017 and, above all, the minimum wage of Rs.600 per day as the lowest minimum
wage fixed in Kerala on 16 May 2018.
However,
as per Modi government’s definition, anganwadi and ASHA workers are not
‘workers’ but only ‘volunteers’, who do not receive any ‘wage’ but only an
‘honorarium’! So the principle of minimum wage would not apply to these scheme
workers. The enormity of injustice to these workers would be clear once we
consider that there more than 26 lakh anganwadi workers and 8.73 lakh ASHAs all
over the country.
The
judiciary opinion is also divided. In case after case, the higher judiciary has
come up with verdicts saying that they don’t qualify as workers who can be
regularised. The courts have rejected that they were government employees but
that was in the context of serving ASHAs contesting assembly or panchayat
polls. Are they covered under the minimum wage law? Or, at least should they
have wage parity with regular workers like ANMs as ASHAs also perform many of
their activities and even substitute them where their posts are vacant? This
question has not yet come up concretely before the higher judiciary. However,
in a case the court has ruled that they were entitled for gratuity.
But
the State of Punjab and Others versus Jagjit Singh case has offered a glimmer
of hope for scheme workers. In that case, in 2016, the Supreme Court ruled that
all types of temporary workers and daily wagers are entitled for wage parity
with the regular workers provided they perform similar work. Where ASHA workers
are absent, ANMs, who are regulars, perform the same work. There are also a few
other case laws where the courts have upheld not only the principle of equal
pay for equal work but the principle of fair wages as such.
After
nine months of antenatal and post-natal care involving at least 6 home visits,
the ASHA worker gets an incentive of Rs.200 if she arranges an institutional
delivery. They are to promote universal immunization. They will have to deliver
contraceptives at the homes of the beneficiaries. They will have to track TB,
leprosy and AIDS in their assigned area and deliver medicines for these
diseases also. They will have to address outbreaks of other epidemics like
chikungunya and swine flu etc. They will have to engage in counselling relating
to breast feeding and maintaining nutrition etc. Though the Centre has fixed
incentives for only 8 specific types of activities, they are forced to perform
at least 35 different tasks, including some unrelated to healthcare like
mobilising women for minister’s function nearby. According to the Tenth Common
Review Mission report on National Health Mission, the average monthly incentive
amounts for ASHAs range from Rs.2,350 in Jharkhand to Rs.900 in Nagaland. Even
after the recent hike by Modi, they might at best earn Rs.100–120 per day. From
trying to be a ‘model employer’ in the Nehruvian days, the BJP government has
become ‘model exploiter’!
In
fact, the 45th session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), had recommended
that all scheme workers should be recognised as ‘workers’ and not as
‘volunteers’ or ‘honorary workers’, should be paid minimum wages and they
should get all statutory benefits like pension, gratuity, DA, earned leave,
medical leave, and maternity benefits, including child care leave etc. ILC also
recommended that the anganwadi workers and ASHAs be covered under life and
health insurance under Aam Aadmi Bima Yojana and Rashtriya Swastya Bima Yojana.
It also recommended that for ASHAs suitable working space and amenities be
extended as they have no toilets even. It also said they should have right to
organise and collective bargaining. But the action taken report presented by
the government at the 46th meeting of the Standing Labour Committee rejected
each and every one of these demands except the demand for insurance coverage.
This despite the same government being a party to the recommendations of the
ILC, a tripartite body!
In
a hierarchic cultural milieu where occupations are ranked as high and low, who
would respect ASHAs earning one-third of what an agricultural labourer earns?
No wonder Modi’s announcement of paltry increase in honorarium was met with
protests from ASHA workers. On 2–3 October 2018, the ASHA workers of Madhya
Pradesh laid a siege around the house of former CM Chauhan demanding minimum
wages and were brutally lathi-charged. ASHAs in Bihar launched a strike on 2
December, which has been continuing for the past 20 days, demanding
implementation of the ILC recommendations. The scheme workers are preparing for
a showdown in some other states also before the 2019 polls.
(IPA Service)
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