Bhubaneswar: Amid shivering nights, hundreds of agitating Anganwadi workers are still holding the ground and staying in the open at the PMG area.
The agitation, organised by the All Odisha Anganwadi Ladies Workers Association (AOALWA), which has been going on for a month, seems to be not creating ripples in the political arena. As per the aggrieved Anganwadi workers, 1.33 lakh have not received permanent job status even after working under Integrated Child Development Service (ICDS) project for decades.
A visit to the site at night revealed that several women are sleeping on the roadside near PMG Square under the open sky in shivering cold. One can only sympathise with the agitators when the night temperature further drops in the coming days.
“Around 130 Anganwadi workers are sleeping under the open sky in the cold month of December just to press for their demands,” Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) leader Basanta Kumar Sahoo said.
He also added that the grassroots workers who actually put a lot of toil to ensure the early childhood development of children are now being overloaded with tasks and also underpaid at the same time. They have been agitating to press for their demands since the commencement of winter session of the Assembly, but to no avail.
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