Anganwadi workers protest near Assembly and (below) police use water canon to control the mob in Bhubaneswar on Friday. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 7: Nearly a dozen anganwadi workers and 10 policemen were injured during a demonstration by the All Odisha Anganwadi Ladies Workers’ Association.

The demonstration saw brickbatting by the protesters forcing the police to use water cannons and lob teargas shells at Lower PMG this afternoon.

The police swung into action after more than 7,000 anganwadi workers, staging a demonstration with demands for a hike in their salary, made a bid to enter the Assembly by breaking the police cordon.

The women workers continued their march towards the Assembly, despite repeated police warnings. Violence erupted as the agitators began pelting the cops with stones. The police retaliated with a water cannon and teargas shells. The cops lobbed around 20 teargas shells to bring the situation under control.

Around a dozen anganwadi workers suffered injuries and were given first aid. The protesters even set the barricades on fire at a number of places.

The agitators’ demands include increasing monthly salary to Rs 12,000, pension of Rs 3,000, status of government servants and filling up of vacancies in their ranks.

“We had held talks with the state government on December 30 last. But despite an assurance, nothing has happened so far,” said state general secretary of the association Anjali Patel. She also threatened to intensify the agitation if the state government failed to fulfil their demands.

The agitators alleged that despite doing several works, an anganwadi worker was getting a monthly remuneration of Rs 3,500 and a helper Rs 1,750, which was very less than they deserved. “We will not take part in government programmes and services such as census, animal survey, election duty and pulse polio duty, if our demands are not fulfilled,” said Patel.

At present, around 1.4 lakh females are working as anganwadi workers, helpers and mini-anganwadi workers across the state. Earlier, the workers had staged a block-wise demonstration on December 6 last and a 12-day strike at Lower PMG during the last winter session of the Assembly. “The government had sought one month’s time on the pretext that elections were going on for the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. The government had assured us to give a hike and other related benefits,” said Subhramayee Biswal, an agitator.