Integrated Child Development Services
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Tenure of employees
HC: Formulate policy to absorb anganwadi staff in govt service
Saeed Khan, Nov 9, 2024: The Times of India
Ahmedabad : Gujarat HC has ruled that anganwadi workers (AWWs) and anganwadi helpers (AWHs) are entitled to be absorbed as “permanent employees holding civil posts” in the central or state govt, an important judgment that will benefit over 1 lakh women anganwadi workers in Gujarat and over 24 lakh women across the country.
In an order released on Oct 30, Justice Nikhil Kariel directed the Centre and state govt to jointly formulate a policy for absorption of AWWs and AWHs in govt services and to confer the consequential benefit of regularisation of their jobs under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), a Centre-sponsored scheme. Their absorption in govt service in Gujarat was ordered under the Gujarat Civil Services (Classification and Recruitment) (General) Rules, 1967.
HC also ordered consideration of the salary of AWWs and AWHs in the minimum pay scale available to Class III and Class IV employees, re- spectively. Gujarat’s govt was also ordered to pay arrears (in the petitioners’ case the cut-off date would be three years preceding the date of filing the petitions, which was in 2015) because the women working in these positions are paid an honorarium — Rs 10,000 for AWWs and Rs 5,500 for AWHs — which is less than what a Class IV employee gets for working in such a category four hours a day. HC said that “while the govt takes pride in running a programme like ICDS, it pays very little to workers, whereas there exists a master and servant relationship between the state of Gujarat and the AWWs and AWHs”.
Till the govts formed the policy, HC said the petitioners were entitled to a salary at the minimum pay scales for Class III and Class IV posts.
HC’s directions were in re- sponse to hundreds of petitions filed in 2015 by AWWs and AWHs who had been working for over 10 years and were seeking regularisation of service and minimum wages. Women working in these posts claimed discrimination and exploitation and urged the court to hold that the system of employing them under the ICDS scheme on an honorarium was in violation of constitutional provisions.
‘Honorary service is a misnomer’
Gujarat HC, in its order, said the term “honorary” used for AWWs’ jobs is “nothing but a misnomer”. “The women undergo a well-laid-down selection/recruitment process and are required to undergo medical examination and training. There are selection criteria, prescribed age limits, and work allocation as well. They work under the administrative control of superiors, and disciplinary proceedings can be initiated against them. This clearly reflects the fact that the employment is nothing but regular employment and the term ‘honorary’ is used to ensure that benefits of regular service are not given to the employee concerned,” it stated. TNN
‘Unequal bargaining power of the jobless’
The Gujarat high court stated in its order that the scheme of employing AWWs and AWHs may be designed “to take advantage of the completely unequal bargaining power of an unemployed woman, more so when she is from a rural background.”
HC cited the constitutional provisions prohibiting states from discriminating on the basis of sex and gender, and noted in its order that “all the employees working as AWWs and AWHs are women, and this might make the govt susceptible to allegations that since they are women, the State is discriminating against them by not absorbing them in govt service and, on the other hand, paying them meagre emoluments under the specious term ‘honorarium’.” TNN
