Anganwadi: India's Community Health Warriors
"Whenever there is a service, a kind of work where the work force is prevalently women, wages are always lower. We need to strengthen the capacity of women to organize, the possibility for women to have formal work that can entitle them to own the terms and conditions that the formality of work entails – pensions, sick leave, maternity leave, decent wages, decent working conditions, training. We have been successful in a similar situation in Pakistan – 50,000 out of 120,000 women have been recognized as formal workers in the country.
This is part of the fight that PSI is fighting all over the world – to defend and to achieve quality public services – public education for all, public health services for all that are funded by the government through the taxation system.
India is not a poor country; India is a rich country. The fact is that the money is not redistributed and doesn’t go where there is more need.
The Anganwadi is an emblematic sector where with little resources we will be able to fix several problems and go towards the implementation of several sustainable development goals – gender equality, reducing poverty, universal health access, education for all, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities.
We see the alternative to privatization of public services and we will continue to support the Indian trade unions fighting for quality public services for all."
-- Rosa Pavenelli, PSI General Secretary, at a meeting with Tamil Nadu Anganwadi workers and Indian trade unions, April 2019, Chennai, India.