Thousands Of Anganwadi Women Protest Demanding The Implementation Of ‘Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act’!
Prerit Chauhan (Photo/Video) By Lokesh Goswami Ten News Delhi :
New Delhi: On Sunday, Thousands of Anganwadi Women, youth, students workers from Delhi, Haryana, Mumbai and Bihar marched from Ramleela Maidan to Parliament demanding the implementation of ‘Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act’. Around 12 in the noon scores of Anganwadi Women holding banners listing their demands lead the march from Ramleela Maidan which was joined by students, workers from all walks of life. Raising slogans like ‘Give Employment to all or else leave the government!’, ‘Employment is everyones birthright and we shall have it!’, etc reverberated in the rally.
From Ramleela Maidan to Parliament street the rally of thousands of protesting women, workers, youth distributed pamphlets along the way, urging the common citizens to join the march for their right to employment.Through BSNEGA the agitating youth and workers are demanding the Inclusion of the right to ‘permanent employment, equal rights and free education to every citizen’ in the fundamental rights by constitutional amendment. The rally was jointly organized by Naujawan Bharat Sabha, Disha Student Organization, Delhi State Aanganwadi Workers and Helpers Union, Krantikari Mazdoor Morcha, among several other organizations. The rally culminated in a public gathering near the Parliament.
Shivani,member of the BSNEGA campaign coordination committee, who is also the union leader of Delhi State Anganwadi Workers and Helpers Union said “In the face of the rising unemployment, if we look at some reports and statistics we can atleast stop blaming ourselves. In the Rajya Sabha, Cabinet Minister Jitender Prasad admitted that a total of 4,20,547 posts were lying vacant in the center alone.
Nearly 10 lakh posts of Primary-upper-primary teachers across the country, 5,49,025 posts in the police department, 6 thousand posts in 47 central universities, 63 thousand posts in 363 state universities, are vacant. In 36 thousand government hospitals more than 2 lakh posts of doctors and 11,500 that of psychiatrists are lying vacant. Nearly twenty lakh posts are vacant at the level of the Centre and the States.
The minister even admitted that 9.13 lakh of population was unemployed in 2013 which increased to 10.97 lakh in 2014 which further increased to 12.22 lakhs. With the implementation of ‘Demonetization’ and GST a large part of the working masses in Delhi were severely affected. AamAadmi Party too had promised to fill the 55000 vacant posts but without any effect. All the electoral-political parties seem to be following the same policy.
The veteran leaders of BJP had pompously made electoral promises of giving two crore jobs yearly, but even after three and a half years of their rule only 5 lakh new jobs have been added according to the official labour bureau statistics. India’s unemployment rate was 3.8 percent in 2012, which reached 5 percent in 2015-16”.
There is an urgent need to bring BNEGA to eradicate the unemployment in the country which may guarantee for employment according to the ability of the youth. The provision needs to be kept in the proposed Act – Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act – BNEGA, by dividing the employment in four categories – Unskilled to be paid minimum Rs.20,000, semi-skilled Rs.25,000, skilled Rs.30,000 and highly skilled Rs.35,000 per month with provision of unemployment allowance till such time the job is provided minimum 50% of the proposed wages but not less than Rs.10,000.
The leaders said this movement is going on for the last 20 years in Punjab which has got momentum at the national level. They are hopeful for the success in getting this Act passed in the Parliament shortly.
The Campaign demands –
1. Every citizen must be given equal and free education and permanent employment by the government and Right to education and employment must be brought under the fundamental rights through necessary constitutional amendments.
2. The government must enact ‘Bhagat Singh National Employment Guarantee Act’ with immediate effect. Every citizen of employable age residing anywhere in India must be guaranteed permanent employment. In case of unemployment, a sum of Rs.10,000/month must be given as unemployment allowance by the government.
3. Contract system in perennial nature of work should be completelyabolished.Those working on contract basis in government departments must be made permanent.
4. The qualified candidates in various examinations held by central as well as state governments must be instated forthwith.
5. The vacant posts of central and state governments must be filled as early as possible by conducting qualifying examinations.
April 2, 2018 at 4:41 pm
The protests for implementation of guarantee scheme are justified and the government should address them