India News | BJP Govt Has Increased Monthly Honorarium of Anganwadi Workers to Rs 4,500: Smriti Irani

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) The BJP government has increased the monthly honorarium of anganwadi workers to Rs 4,500 from Rs 1,400 given during the UPA's tenure, Union Minister Smriti Irani said on Friday.

Replying to a discussion on a resolution in Lok Sabha on welfare measures for anganwadi workers and anganwadi helpers, the women and child development minister said the budget allocation towards the anganwadi system was increased by the government to Rs 18,208 crore in 2021-22.

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On suggestions by members that anganwadis workers are doing a good job and they should be given salaries instead of honorariums, she said that "particularly on this issue, the Supreme Court has settled on the subject whether honorarium should given or they should be treated as employees and after all the evidence which was presented before the Supreme Court this issue was settled in 2006."

Irani also said that the Centre in 2019 had written to chief secretaries that anganwadi workers should not be given additional work. "They are honorary workers who work for honorariums and are not employees and hence, cannot be given added work," the minister said.

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During the discussion, Revolutionary Socialist Party member N K Premachandran said the qualification of anganwadi workers and helpers should be well prescribed by the government.

The infrastructure of the anganwadi centres is in a very pitiable condition, he said.

Congress' Jasbir Singh Gill said that during the Covid pandemic, the way these anganwadi workers and helpers worked, they deserve respect, and urged that their jobs be made permanent.

Bahujan Samaj Party's Danish Ali said during the COVID-19 pandemic, anganwadis and anganwadi helpers worked as frontline workers.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)