Defying threats of victimisation and wage cuts, lakhs of women scheme workers – anganwadi workers and helpers, ASHA workers and facilitators, and Mid Day Meal workers – struck work across the country today, staging powerful protests against the Modi government’s corporate-communal agenda.
Challenging privatisation of basic services, budget cuts, increasing digital exclusion of the poor, and inhuman treatment meted out to them despite their critical public service roles, the workers blocked roads and rail tracks in several states in a show of defiance.
From the streets of Anantnag and Srinagar in Kashmir to Kanyakumari and even Great Nicobar Islands, from the villages of Gujarat to the hills of Manipur, the slogan rang out:
“Modi teri tanashahi nahi chalegi!”
Waving the red flags emblazoned with the hammer and sickle and the name of CITU, the scheme workers underlined that they are not just fighting for their own rights and dignity, but also against the broader assault of neoliberal policies that are hollowing out public services and widening inequalities.
In many centres, the protests turned into vibrant assemblies where workers vowed to resist not only privatisation and precarisation of jobs, but also the communal polarisation that the current regime has been fostering to weaken working people’s unity.
The day’s actions highlighted that women workers – who form the backbone of the country’s health, nutrition, and education services – will remain a vital force in the working class movement against neoliberal capitalism, while also playing a leading role in a socio-cultural movement to defeat the communal and patriarchal forces that it feeds on.
Today’s struggle marked a warning: the women of India’s working class are ready to lead the fight – on the streets and in society – for justice, equality, and dignity.
