The state government issued brought an order bringing Anganwadi services under essential commodities and maintenance Act 1971. The government prohibited strike in Anganwadis for the next six months.
The state government said that the Central government brought Supplementary Nutrition (Under Integrated Child Development Services Scheme) Rules 2017 on February 20, 2017. It was the responsibility of the respective state government to ensure consistent and uninterrupted supply of supplementary nutrition at all Anganwadi Centres. The state governments are mandated to supply supplementary nutrition food to the beneficiaries for 300 days a year.
The order said that the government had engaged in holding talks with the Anganwadi workers and helpers and had accepted majority of their demands. However, the Anganwadi workers and helpers were continuing their strike interrupting the supply of supplementary nutritious food to the beneficiaries.
The strike was causing hardships and inconvenience to the marginalised, vulnerable, and weaker sections of pregnant women, lactating mothers, and children aged between 0 years to 6 years. The strike also caused disturbance to the attendance of 7.5 lakh children in the Anganwadi schools, the order said.
The strike was adversely affecting the essential services of growth monitoring of malnourished children, immunisation, health checkups, and referral services, the government said. Hence the government brought the services of Anganwadi Workers and Anganwadi Helpers under the ESMA Act 1871. The government also announced prohibition of strikes by the Anganwadi workers and helpers for next six months.
