These officers are under the bureaucratic control of the District Magistrate, hence can take no decisions on their own. Even to decide how much rent can be paid for an Anganwadi Centre cannot be decided by them without permission and ratification of the D.M. There is undue intervention and pressure on them from the Ministry. Moreover, the exact nature of their work is not clear.
General problems of Anganwadi workers and helpers
Although there is no
complaint of sexual harassment as such, and there are no complaint cells many
women workers are used to allowing men to exploit them for the sake of getting
favours and for increasing their clout. Other cases of
violence do take place, for example in Sultanpur district
of U.P., a primary school teacher stabbed a supervisor returning from election
duty. He threatened to kill her even in the hospital. It was
after a movement by the Uttar Pradesh Anganwadi
Supervisors’ Association that she was saved and the teacher arrested. In
another incident in Kanpur a CDPO forcibly stuffed
‘panjeeri’(roasted ata mixed with sugar) into the mouth
of a Supervisor, saying ‘take, eat this’. Many such incidents of intimidation
occur from
time to time. Fear of humiliation, punishments and
transfer make workers accept exploitation and
corrupt activities, disrupting healthy work culture.
Women workers bear economic and other kinds of exploitation both at the
workplace and at home, because often officials and family members have an eye
on the honorarium of the workers. Trapped between family pressures and
departmental pressures, the workers’ health suffers and they lack enthusiasm
for fulfilling targets.