The ongoing protests by ASHA and anganwadi workers in West Bengal demanding an increase in their wages to ₹15,000 per month is a sour reminder of efforts to deny them permanent employee status despite their centrality in many national and state welfare systems. Indira Gandhi’s government denied the first of many such workers the status of “worker” under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS), laying the foundation on which India continues to build to circumvent labor laws. As workloads increased, the creation of a national trade union followed in 1989, but even during liberalization the state created a category of “regime workers” and expanded welfare schemes, but not permanent government jobs. The State of Karnataka vs Ameerbi (1996) – a tribunal decision – further excluded anganwadi workers from the category of government employees, even though the Supreme Court in 2004 extended the right to food and thus the need for these workers. The ASHA program took root in the mid-2000s and followed a similar trajectory when the government labeled them “activists”. Worse, in 2010, when the government, employers and unions at the 45th Labor Conference recommended regularization of jobs, minimum wages and pensions and gratuity for ASHA workers, the UPA and NDA governments chose not to implement it. In 2015, the NDA government cut the ICDS budget and since then these workers have been protesting at regular intervals just to make ends meet.
The Center also froze its contribution to the salaries of these workers in 2018, effectively leaving the ASHA and anganwadi staff to absorb the fiscal shock. Along with the lack of a guarantee of better working conditions for gig workers in the new labor codes, the state has effectively abandoned the social contract for many of its most vulnerable workers in favor of promoting business metrics and more fiscal space at the center. States have greater hiring and dispute resolution powers and are also more vulnerable to electoral pressure, which unions have taken advantage of, but there are also significant differences between states. As central royalties stagnated, states were forced to raise payments from their own budgets. As might be expected, wealthier states and those facing sustained pressure from the Union were able to offer more or additional benefits than those that are fiscally constrained. However, it is unconscionable that the practice of denying these workers their due is still knowingly exploitative. The Center must by law reclassify these “volunteers” as statutory employees under the Social Security Act, which guarantees a minimum wage and pension. The Center and states must also bridge fiscal gaps to ensure equitable remuneration across regions. Only by institutionalizing this protection can India give these essential workers their rightful dignity.
Published – 24 Jan 2026 0:10 AM IST
