Vol. 7, Issue 1, Part H (2025)

Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme is the world’s largest community-based programme in which Anganwadi Centres are the focal point of delivery of services. This programme has been considered as one of the largest grassroots level early childhood development programmes to address health, nutrition and early childhood development of children, adolescent girls, pregnant and lactating mothers. There is gender segregation, and women, most of the time, are pushed to work in less-paid and more vulnerable conditions. The complex relationship between women’s labour, their self-consciousness and connection with the state machinery within the patriarchal setup pushed them into a vulnerable state. Anganwadi women workers under the ICDS scheme are fighting for their right to be recognised as ‘workers.’ This paper is an attempt to highlight the specific challenges faced by Anganwadi women workers who are at the bottom of the hierarchy and receive the lowest honorarium. This paper women and work.