NEW DELHI: There are ten million of them and they came knocking at the doors of Delhi on 26thand 27thNovember. Urban India has probably never heard of them but in the villages these 'scheme workers' are handling almost every kind of crucial care-giving work - deliveries and small ailments, looking after children and pregnant or nursing mothers, cooking food for students, helping out in hospitals, teaching small tots, etc. Many are handling economic activities too like running self-help groups, teaching new farming methods and implementing MGNREGS. They are the business end of the many schemes that have been floated to provide people in the rural hinterland with essential health, nutrition, education and employment services.
All together these scheme workers are estimated to number a mind-boggling 10 million (1 crore) persons, most of them women. Three giant schemes make up the bulk of them. The Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) which provides nutritional diet to infants and pregnant/nursing mothers employs over 27 lakh anganwadi workers and helpers. The mid day meal (MDM) scheme under which 13 crore children are given lunch in elementary schools employs another 27 lakh cooks, 90 percent of them women. And the National Rural Health Mission employs 8.5 lakh ASHA's (Accredited Social Health Activists) who ensure institutional deliveries and look after pregnant women in villages.
Why are they coming to Delhi? Because the government has so far refused to treat them as employees, giving them meager "honorariums" or "incentives". The ASHA, for example, looks after 1000 people, visiting homes, dispensing medicines for minor ailments, giving special care to pregnant women. At the time of delivery of babies, it is she who takes the mother to the nearest hospital. She is on almost 24x7 duty. But she gets Rs.400 for a delivery. So, in a month, if a village has 2 deliveries, she gets Rs.800, which includes transport costs. The Anganwadi worker gets Rs.3000 while her helper gets Rs.1500 per month. They run the anganwadi, cook food for infants, look after them, every day. Then, they also do BPL surveys, health surveys, election duty and anything the local government wants.
Then there are ATMA workers who are taking over the work of popularizing better farming techniques under the Agriculture Technology Management Agency; USHA's who are urban counterparts of ASHA's; Yashoda's or Mamata's, who are non-medical workers looking after women in labor or during delivery; gram rozgar sevaks, who work in implementing the MGNREGS; Krishak Sathi's, who help small indebted farmers. Even the contractual computer teachers who are training people in the new Adhar based network and the para-teachers in elementary schools are part of this growing class of ill-paid workers with no job security.
Over a lakh of this motley one-crore army held a two-day 'maha-padav' or sit-in at Delhi's Jantar Mantar, near the Parliament. They will try and meet the Prime Minister, and also various ministers under which their particular scheme functions.
An over-riding fear among the scheme workers is that their jobs are under threat. They never know when some scheme may be stopped, says Hemlata one of the organizers of the mahapadav.
"Why should essential functions of the government like health care delivery and education be run as time-bound schemes?" she asks.
The scheme workers will be pressing the case for a minimum wage of Rs.10,000 per month, social security coverage and regularization.
| Work | Est. Number | Earning (per month) | |
| Anganwadi workers, helpers | Nutrition for 0-6 yrs children and pregnant mothers | 27.5 lakh | Rs.3000 for Worker Rs.1500 for helper |
| Mid Day Meal Cooks | Making food in schools | 27 lakh | Rs.1000 (10 months only) |
| ASHA | Healthcare of pregnant women; inst. delivery | 8.5 lakh | Rs.400 to Rs.1200 |
| Para Teachers | Teaching in ele. schools | 7 lakh | Rs.3-4000 |
| ATMA workers | Agriculture extension | 3 lakh | |
| Yashoda/Mamta | Non-medical hospital work | 5 lakh | Rs.3000 |
| Others | 10-20 lakh |
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