Gujarat Anganwadi workers face Anandiben Patel’s ire

Anganwadi workers and union leaders from Banaskantha were in for a rude shock on Tuesday when they faced women and child development minister Anandiben Patel's wrath for turning up on a working day. The workers had come to submit a memorandum on their pending issues to the minister. They alleged that despite hearing them, Patel scolded them and ordered her peon to move them out of the office. 

Champaben Parmar, president of Anganwadi Karmachari Sabha, Gujarat, said: "The minister humiliated us. Being a woman, she failed to respect other women. We had come to hand over a memorandum of our pending issues but she refused to hear us further."

Parmar further said, "On the contrary, she asked us how can we leave our anganwadis on a working day. We informed her that we have taken a one-day leave as we could meet her only on a working day."

Parmar added, "If her office is open on non-working day, we could have come to meet her on that day. Our issues are serious. Everybody can understand that it is not possible to serve cooked snack to kids for Rs2 per kid. We requested her to increase this amount to Rs5 per kid."

She further said, "We are also demanding that the union government increase our salaries to Rs1,500, which should be passed on to us. We've made such representations earlier also. We've won the case in  Gujarat high court also but it is not being implemented yet. Today, she called up her peon and ordered to move us out of her office."

Despite several attempts, minister Patel could not be reached for comment.