J&K lags behind UTs/ States in paying honorarium to AWWs, AWHs
Vikas Sharma
JAMMU, Feb 16: Thousands of Anganwadi Workers (AWWs) and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs), in Jammu and Kashmir UT, who are engaged under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), are badly struggling due to lowest honorarium paid to them in comparison to the other States as well as the Union Territories in the country.
ICDS is a Centrally-Sponsored scheme that primarily runs through the Anganwadi centre. The scheme is under the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Top 5 States in the country, which are granting the highest honorarium to AWWs and AWHs included Telangana, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka but the J&K UT is far away from them.
As per the data available with the Excelsior, Telangana Government is on the top and is paying an honorarium of Rs 9150 to AWWs and Rs 5550 to AWHs. Haryana Government is paying an honorarium of Rs 8429 to AWWs and Rs 4215 to AWHs and is at second place while Andhra Pradesh, Karantaka and Madhya Pradesh are paying Rs 7000 to AWWs and Rs 4750 to AWHs as honorarium. They are on third, fourth and fifth places respectively.
The J&K Government is paying an honorarium of around Rs 5000 per month to Anganwadi workers and Rs 2500 to the helpers, which is the lowest as compared to other States and UTs of India.
“In all, there are 13,48,135 Anganwadi Workers and 10,23,068 Anganwadi Helpers in the country and out of which there are 27302 AWWs and 18882 AWHs are working in J&K under ICDS. J&K UT is the only place with the lowest honorarium and State share of wages compared to other UTs. We have been working on peanuts for decades and fighting for a hike in monthly wages, but authorities are not talking about that. This is an issue of discrimination with us,” said Meena Sharma, an Anganwadi Helper.
“It is the issue of the entire J&K and we are suffering even as J&K has been turned into a UT-something that should have resulted in an increase in wages for us, however, nothing of that sort has happened,” she said.
When contacted Mission Director ICDS J&K, Rubina Kousar told the Excelsior that the Central funds are not directly released to the Mission Directorate, but routed through the J&K Finance Department and then withdrawn by the Administrative department of the Social Welfare, which then keeps the funds available at the disposal of the directorate.
“As being the head of this department, my duty was to submit the proposal regarding enhancement of their honorarium. I have submitted their proposal, it is pending with the Finance department and now it is their duty to take a decision in this regard and enhance the honorarium paid to the AWWs as well as the AWHs,” she said.
“It is a committed liability with the Government and they will release it at any point of time. We have been reflecting on it every now and then,” she added.
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