Members of the Mahila Samakhya Employees’ Union staged a protest in opposition to the shortage of action in cost of honoraria and reinstatement of jobs by authorities administrative our bodies for the reason that physique was suspended in June of 2020.
A peaceable protest and starvation strike has been underway on the Eco Backyard, in Lucknow, since August 13, and a Maha Dharna was held on Monday.
In 2020, the state authorities had advised Mahila Samakhya that the organisation could be dissolved and the duties merged with the One Cease Centre. Nevertheless, this step was by no means taken, and shut to 800 ladies who had been related to this physique have been awaiting action by the federal government.
In accordance to a press assertion launched by the Mahila Samakhya, “The calls for embrace cost of honorariums pending in the interval since their duties had been abruptly terminated, and a reinstatement of their job roles and perks in some pre-existing administrative physique.”
The Mahila Samakhya, a physique accountable for operating programmes and campaigns in each district for the training and empowerment of girls, was previously a central authorities initiative, which was taken over by the state authorities in its unique kind in 2017.
On this switch, the Mahila Samakhya went from being an company of the ministry of human useful resource improvement, to coming underneath the aegis of the UP Mahila Kalyan. The Mahila Samakhya even ran a clutch of profitable operations, together with the Nari Aadaalat, which was a physique that helped ladies with vocational training and to struggle instances of home violence or gender abuse in their areas.
“Over 200 ladies have been peacefully protesting right here since August 13,” mentioned Kahkashan Perween, state useful resource individual, Mahila Samakhya. “A few of them are on a starvation strike and have been on a restricted eating regimen of fruits and Glucon-D. They haven’t been having any meals,” she mentioned. Appeals have been made to the deputy chief ministers as effectively, to no avail. “For 3 years, the employees haven’t been paid. Technically, they haven’t been let go both – the duties have been suspended with no future resolution in sight,” she mentioned.
Madhu Garg, joint secretary, AIDWA (All India Democratic Girls’s Affiliation), Sandeep Pandey, social activist and Magsaysay awardee of 2002, and Kamal Agarwal, president of State Workers’ Union, had been additionally in attendance on the Maha Dharna.
The press assertion from Mahila Samakhya additionally mentions that a number of ladies who labored as authorities workers of the Mahila Samakhya Yojana had been struggling due to the shortage of an revenue – unable to pay their kids’s college charges, afford medical therapies, with some even dealing with hunger.
It learn that the majority ladies in this group are in the 45-50 years age group, some are single ladies, some widowed, and a few from low-income backgrounds, who’re discovering it troublesome to discover employment elsewhere.