Anganwadi workers, helpers suspend their six-month-long stir

Srinagar: Anganwadi workers and helpers in Jammu and Kashmir Monday announced suspension of their nearly six-month-long agitation for various demands including hike in honorarium, saying they are temporarily resuming work on the assurance of the state administration.
Over 28,000 Anganwadi workers and helpers went on an indefinite strike across the state on February 1 to press for their demands, which also included implementation of the pension scheme, release of pending salaries, seniority list and gratuity of Rs two lakh for workers and Rs one lakh for helpers on retirement.
“We have decided to suspend the 173-day strike for a month and are resuming work after getting an assurance from the governor’s advisor Khurshid Ahmad Ganai that our demands would be addressed within a fortnight,” Anganwadi workers and helpers association president Suman Suri said.
She said a delegation of the association from all the three regions of the state met Ganai in Srinagar on Friday under her leadership and highlighted their “genuine and long-pending” demands and got a “positive response” from him.
“We are resuming the work and if the need arises, we will be back on the roads on August 24. However, we are hopeful that the governor will look into our demands sympathetically and on humanitarian grounds, and address these with utmost urgency,” Suri said. She said the Anganwadi workers and helpers in the state are getting a meagre amount of Rs 3,600 and Rs 1,800 respectively, while their counterparts in other states, including in Delhi are getting Rs 10,000 and Rs 6,000 for the same work.