 as you all know that they are doing the community health work where they how and particularly during this pandemic they were put on duty for COVID related duties particularly among the people. So they were to check for the patients and who are returning the return migrants all those kinds of work which they were directly exposed to the COVID patients and this pandemic. So there the government was not at all providing this is a central government scheme by implemented by the state government. Neither the central government nor the state government was not providing them with any basic safety equipment even the sanitizer and the mask. So this was the first thing which we raised that we are not saying no to any kind of work which which is very important for the country and its people and they but the safety of the workers in two two aspects because we ourselves will get infected and it is a threat to our own lives but at the same time we will be infecting people. So it will be spreading of COVID also through the community health workers in both these aspects it is very important to provide the safety equipments but that was not given and for four months continuously the workers were working and the central government announced only 1000 rupees per month as an additional risk allowance or whatever you may call and as you can also see that in a survey was conducted 70 percent of the Asha workers did not even get that increased remuneration which they were supposed to get and in addition to that when they were doing the they were doing a fantastic job very appreciated by everybody and we thought them that even the statistics know this work was reaching the people and they were risking their lives many got infected and all over the country many have died also during this pandemic due to corona infection and many died and they were not even checked for the corona that because it was it is so it was very difficult to prove that they are died of corona so in that context that was the basic demand which we started but we never had any kind of a struggle or anything we were just demanding this and in the second phase you see after this four months this deaths and all started and the government announced a an insurance key package for 50 lakh those who died but our point was that if one person is infected and their entire health even there were they were not continuously or randomly checked for corona infection being there and even their expenses of this treatment and all and a remuneration for those period also a risk allowance in addition to the risk allowance they have to be provided but that was never means nobody even discussed about all these things and this insurance which is 50 lakhs after death that was not given to many of the people because there was nothing to prove that they were doing the covid duty and even they were getting infected they were not checked so this was also means in only a few means less than 10 people must have throughout the country got this after death also their insurance has been provided the Anvadi workers are also put on duty for the covid related assignments and even in the quarantine centers they were they were to take the patients to the hospital like Asha workers in most of the states one a few states they were not put on the covid duty but they were having these they are supposed to provide the supplementary new under six children and the pregnant women and the latitudes so they are the cooked food is totally stopped because the Anganwadi centers are closed but the Anganwadi workers and helpers are asked to provide ration to the beneficiaries to take this rare forms so they also didn't say no to any of this kind of work because it is a very important question particularly when this unemployment and the over hunger is prevalent there so they were taking this ration but first of all we demanded that it is cooked food providing if you are putting it as a dry ration it is a very less quantity and it is not sufficient if you are providing it at home because it is it will not ensure that the child or the mother will get enough quantity of and also the quality so you have to increase the items and you have to increase the quantity of the ration so the government did not even increase one rupee for the and their supplementary nutrition during this covid period in spite of the unicef warning that three lakh more children will die in the next six months because of malnutrition so there one is that they were also one on the covid duty they were at risk and also this nutrition question also they were not provided with any transportation even up to for the entire children they were carrying this load of dry ration on their hurts and reaching it to the beneficiaries so there was nothing given to them also so the similar kind of demands we took that the risk allowance and additional remuneration and also the safety equipments these were the demands but it was not given and in different and they had big struggles in Maharashtra they had a struggle also the Asha workers so they were given some kind of additional state-wise remuneration but in national level the Anganwadi workers were not included even in the category of the workers who will be getting the insurance coverage that also was not done and these were the demands during this lockdown which they were taking Anganwadi workers and the Asha workers Asha workers are peace-right workers so each and every service for it around means if it is a six months of means nine months of maternity care care of the pregnant woman and they have to take care of them and if the delivery is an institutional delivery they will be getting for the care around 250 rupees and for the three around 250 or so rupees so there one more thing is that if you are taking care of the entire nine months and if the woman is going to her own house for delivery then the Asha worker will not get any money because she will be going in another place for delivery so this is the kind of thing and everything if it is for immunization or any other kind of service even distribution of condoms or that kind of it is all peace-rated work and then we had a long agitation and the central government announced first 1000 rupees minimum per month and then in 2018 we had a big struggle and it was increased to 2000 rupees per month as a minimum this is all over India in many states we are have we had big struggles and they got an additional remuneration and the Anganwadi workers also they were the Angan ICDS scheme started in 1975 from there in up to 2018 they were getting 3000 rupees per month for the worker and 1500 for the helper in 2018 along with the Asha's we had a big struggle and in the 5th of September it was a worker percent joint rally you may be remembering that after that the government announced that an increase or the Anganwadi workers and Asha workers there the Anganwadi workers now are getting from 2018 September onwards 4500 rupees per month for the worker and 2250 rupees for the helper listen they are peace-rate workers so the regular health sector work was totally put on hold so their income from those works that that peace rate of each the other sector the immunization those things there was no income so the basic from the central government these 2000 rupees announced this and rupees that was the only income they were supposed to get that also they were not getting so in this context they were taking this demand all over India and we have absurd means asking for safety various days but they will be we never stopped work so there in Haryana after four months without the safety they were working and they were forced to go for a struggle they started the struggle it's now I think more than 70 75 days so they started the struggle it was not the strike but it was the struggles they had demonstration they give memorandum all those things so after a point they were even refused to speak the ministers or the officials had some around of negotiation or discussions but they there was no decision at all because the payment part was to be taken as a political decision the ministers refused to talk to them so there the strike started and then in the strike also they were having demonstrations and they had a big demonstration in front of the health ministers residence now people are working from their residence there they had a very big rally and the health minister refused to meet them and then again they were going to the chief ministers residence there the day of their struggle the chief minister was tested positive of covid and then his OSD he met the workers the leaders and they he assured that anyway he he can't meet you because he is in quarantine so after till that time we will be working on that so you please we draw your strike and then means we will be doing positively I am assuring you on behalf of the CM and for a meeting also so these then they we grow the strike but they continued the protest because nothing none of their demands were met then again after CM to means came back on duty they were not giving any appointment again they had to go and for a demonstration and then again they were given a date for the meeting and on that meeting day the the delegation went to meet the CM and it was unilaterally cancelled and then the workers were there and the workers were they were demanding that you have already assured us for a meeting you are not meeting us so then they were brutally lathi charged actually the labour force the working hours have been as you all know that the working hours there is no more limit for eight hour work that has been done away with and there is no kind of concept of minimum wage which is the minimum wage concept is there in the courts but it is not applicable to any of the means 90% of the workers are out of the purview of whatever they have announced that minimum wage which will amount to any something like 4500 rupees a month or so and the right of foaming union that is almost impossible and right to go for a strike is as is totally impossible now so i'm not going into the details but the entire propaganda by the government is that all category of workers now we have included which is a lie and first of all it is not at all none of the labs in there any of the definition the scheme workers are coming under the definition of a worker so the and they are telling that we are including all category of workers in the social security even in the social security called the anwadi workers or the asha workers or any other scheme workers like the middle workers they are not included in that and there is no provision for getting social security also and in addition because they are not under the category of workers the right to form association now we are all registered under trade union act in future the anwadi workers and asha workers will be refused to get the recognition even for a collective bargain the social status of the women means the women's work the entire care work it is never calculated in any of these countries though this unfair care work and the social status of women and the women's work which is supposedly very divine and this has to be means it has it is free so that social status is being utilized in these government schemes to press exploitation so that is one thing that whether the government was forced to introduce any kind of a social security scheme which in this neoliberal period somewhere means instead of making a permanent arrangement for the health and nutrition services they are introducing these schemes which they were forced to because of the people's demands and the struggles but now they want to utilize this also to siphon off the money that this is not directly closing down our privatization so the corporates are involved in this the core in the nutrition component also corporates are involved and then the corporate in the name of the corporate social responsibility now you can see even in the new education policy this pp now not public private partnership it is private philanthropic partnership so through that the corporate and the corporate NGOs and the bureaucratic political nexus they will be taking in charge of their people's money through the budgetary allocation process so this is happening and there is no role of the workers and their component in that but what we are confident about the scheme workers struggle it is to be noted all through this neoliberal era this is one sector of workers which were continuously and consistently on the struggles and they could achieve they could negotiate with the governments force the governments to give means they were to increase their remuneration or other social security and in addition to that these struggles it is not only having a direct implication on their own working condition but it has given tremendous confidence to the other sector of workers also and also even the presentry so the entire country is witnessing and this is women means 99% of the women and Nandhvadi and Asha are totally women so their struggles has given the confidence to the entire working class movement and the people's movement also so that kind of a function is there and is continuing now with this 26 November strike and the other struggles of the presentry is coming up so there also the struggles are having a very big role in the future also because these are the community health workers community workers so they are working among the presentry ourselves so in addition to taking up their own demand going to the people means even trying to organize them which we are trying from our own trade union from the state view our federation so there there is an upsurge even in the years against these government policies