Bengaluru: The state government has agreed to consider the demand of wage hike for anganwadi workers who are on indefinite strike from Monday. If all goes well, the government has fixed April 19 to hold a meeting to discuss the issue of wage hike for anganwadi workers. There are 62,000 anganwadi workers and 62,000 anganwadi assistants working at anganwadi centres across the state.

Thousands of anganwadi workers who arrived in Bengaluru on Monday had continued their agitation by sleeping on the road near Freedom Park on Monday night.
Commuters travelling on the stretch in and around Majestic and also Vidhana Soudha on Monday had a harrowing experience as traffic clogged resulting in a huge traffic jam that lasted for more than four hours.

Political leaders including Janata Dal (Secular) state president H D Kumaraswamy visited the agitators on Monday and extended his support to their agitation for a wage hike. “The state government should have been considered the genuine demands of anganwadi workers. I will raise the issue during the Assembly session,’’ Kumaraswamy said.

Raising the issue in the Assembly, Leader of Opposition Jagadish Shettar demanded the state government consider the demands of anganwadi workers. “The demands of anganwadi workers are genuine and need immediate attention of the state government. They have been protesting on the road. They are also compelled to sleep on the road in support of their demands,’’ Jagadish Shettar said.

The leaders of Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers Association have met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in support of their demands. “The chief minister has agreed to consider our demands. He wanted us to meet him again on April 19 to discuss the issue. He said the government could not make any announcement due to the ongoing State Budget session and also due to the moral code of conduct due to the by-elections,’’ said S Varalakshmi, president, Karnataka State Anganwadi Workers’ Association.

At present an anganwadi worker is drawing Rs 7,000 (including Rs 1,000 hike announced in the recent State Budget) and Rs 3,500 for anganwadi assistant (including Rs 500 hike announced in the recent State Budget). The anganwadi workers said in Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Goa and Pondicherry governments have been paying Rs 10,000 to Rs 14,000 to anganwadi workers in the respective states. “We staged similar protest during the last year but the government did not respond to our demands. It merely announced a meagre hike in the recent State Budget. We want our salary to be hiked by Rs 3,000,’’ said Maheswari S, an anganwadi worker from Shivamogga.