Anganwadi teachers and helpers stage protest at Secretariat

Anganwadi workers in Telangana staged a “Chalo Secretariat” protest on Thursday, opposing the state’s new pre-primary school plan and demanding higher pay. They alleged the move would endanger jobs under ICDS. Police later dispersed and detained the protesters.

Hyderabad:  The environs of the Secretariat reverberated with “CM down down” slogans raised by Anganwadi teachers and helpers on Thursday as they demanded the Congress government to fulfill their demands.

Under the aegis of Anganwadi Teachers and Helpers Union, women from across the State turned up in large numbers to lay siege to the Secretariat on Thursday. This was as part of the “Chalo Secretariat” protest call given by the union after staging a protest at Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy’s residence in Kodangal on September 15.

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The Anganwadi teachers and helpers are up in arms against the Congress government for establishing pre-primary schools in government schools, citing that the move would leave them jobless. The Anganwadi teachers complained that the government was implementing the Centre’s new education policy. As a result, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme would be abandoned, leaving many jobless, they said.

The Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh governments were entrusting the pre-primary school operations to Anganwadi teachers. But the Congress government in Telangana was not opposing the Centre’s new education policy.

The union members are also demanding that Congress government to fulfill its 2023 Assembly election promise of increasing their salaries to Rs.18,000 a month. Later, the police shifted the teachers and helpers to the police station in RTC buses from the Secretariat.