Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee‘s decision to double the remuneration of Anganwadi workers from `1,500 to `3,000 per month is a major victory for the 22 lakh workers who form the backbone of the country’s flagship Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme.
Anganwadi helpers will now receive `1,500 per month against the `750 per month they had been receiving earlier. This increase will become effective from April 1 while their helpers salary will increase from `750 to `1,500.
This is part of the 15 per cent increase of `12,733 for the women and child development ministry as against last year’s budget of `11,070 crores.
But women activists are quick to point out that the World Bank component of the ICDS has gone up to `330 crores while the government allocation is `6964 crores.
Mr Mukherjee has gone in for a major gender budgeting exercise for which he has allocated `20,548.35 crores for 100 per cent women specific schemes across all departments and another `57,702.72 crores for 30 per cent women-specific schemes. But activists express apprehension at the allocation of `76.50 crores for the Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme when the actual expenditures in 2009-10 crossed `100 crores and the expense was even higher in 2010.
Eenakshi Ganguly who heads HAQ, a centre for child rights warns, “This allocation must be seen in the context of the right of children to have a safe environment when their mothers go to work. Just the opposite is happening today with India having become the main destination for cross border trafficking of women and children in South Asia.”
The finance minister, however, kept the income-tax exemption limit unchanged for women at `1.90 lakhs.