The director of Women Empowerment and Child Development (WECD) department Prashant Arya assured the agitating Anganwadi workers that their demands would be addressed soon. Sharing this information, the president of the Anganwadi Workers Association Rekha Negi said on Wednesday that the workers had recently met the director to discuss their long-pending demands. “During this meeting, we informed him about the problems we have been facing due to the administrative nonchalance and requested him to present their views regarding an increase in their honorarium and other demands to the chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami at the earliest,” she said.

 She further said that in response, the director had assured them that the department is considering all the demands they have been agitating on very seriously and they would be addressed soon. “He also assured us that multiple departments would work together to sort out things. While expressing our gratitude to him for his assurance of sympathetic redress of our grievances, we told him we would end our stir the day we meet the CM and are able to articulate our grievances and demands before him,” she added. 

It is pertinent to mention here that the Anganwadi workers across the State have been demanding a raise in their monthly allowance to Rs 18,000 for the past few years. They are also demanding access to a health insurance golden card, citing that many of them are facing migraines among other health issues. Additionally, they are demanding an increased retirement amount of Rs 10 lakh. With their demands remaining unaddressed, these workers have been staging sit-in in Dehradun since February 19.