Women’s Empowerment Issues in The Parliament – Manual Scavengers, Panchayat Presidents and Anganwadi Workers

The Parliament session today (8 February 2018) saw several important questions regarding the empowerment of women.

Women in Panchayats

The Minister of State, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Parshottam Rupala stated that there were currently 1,06,154 women Panchayat presidents in the country. He also stated that a study “Elected Women Representatives (EWR) in Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs)” was commissioned by the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR) which found that reservations had provided women the opportunities to come on to the mainstream politics and helped them participate and interact. Twenty states provide 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats.

Women Manual Scavengers

On the question of the number of women manual scavengers in the country, the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment stated that 11044 women manual scavengers had been identified till the end of January 2018. 

The number of women manual scavengers who were given a one-time assistance of Rs 40,000 each were 9798. That amounts to 39.19 crores. It is interesting to know from where the government allocated that amount as in the last budget the government had allotted only Rs 5 crores for their rehabilitation.

The Minister said that 1246 women manual scavengers who were identified were not provided rehabilitation benefits due to the non-availability of bank account details or insufficient information. If the women submit the correct details then government would have to pay Rs 4.984 crores out of the meager allocation of Rs 20 crores.

On Anganwadi Workers

One question was whether anganwadi workers were being paid amounts less than the mandated minimum wages.

The answer given by the government was that anganwadi workers are not really workers but “honorary workers”. The government stated that the Anganwadi Workers (AWW) are currently being paid Rs 3000 per month and Anganwadi Helpers (AWHs) are being paid Rs 1500 per month.

The minister Maneka Gandhi also said that the Anganwadi workers of the “Mini – Anganwadi Centres”  are being paid honoraria of Rs  2250 since  4 July 2013.

The educational qualification for the anganwadi workers is Matriculation. The teachers who are paid less than the minimum wages in the country can very well understand the significance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement in an interview that making of pakodas was one form of employment. And since selling pakodas falls under self-employment, the question whether the individual is at least getting a minimum wage does not arise.