On February 18, 2026, the Gujarat government announced its annual budget for the year 2026-27. Digital tourism, building a Commonwealth and Olympic-ready city, and developing temple infrastructure were some of the main discussion points in the state assembly. For some time, Ahmedabad has been gearing up to host the Commonwealth Games as well as the Olympic Games, all of which contribute towards the tireless efforts of the government to present a narrative of a global city.Urban practitioner Renu Desai, in her essay ‘City Imagineering, Place Marketing and Citizenship in Ahmedabad’, discusses the process by which Ahmedabad has undergone a transformation in recent years, focused on entrepreneurial urbanisms through staging mega-events and aggressive economic development to invite greater capital and investments. The neoliberal reimagining of the city, however, comes with a systematic exclusion of its vulnerable populations.Just a week before the budget was presented, lakhs of Anganwadi workers and Anganwadi helpers gathered at the Town Hall in Ahmedabad as part of the Bharat Bandh called by most major trade unions in the country a few days prior. “The budget is what we are aiming towards. Once that is gone, nothing is going to change for a year,” said Ashaben*, an Anganwadi worker.The women had gathered to put forth their demands, primary amongst which was the implementation of an order by the Gujarat high court directing an increase in their monthly wages. The workers this author spoke to were part of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions.Although this strike was called for all workers – including construction/kadiya workers and farmers, the rally consisted largely of women Anganwadi workers and Anganwadi helpers. While other workers were present, an aerial view of the rally would have revealed a greater percentage of saree-clad Anganwadi workers and helpers rather than their male counterparts.Their overwhelming participation hints at two things: the workers’ commitment to defying their workplaces and participating in the rally, and the difficult circumstances that are pushing them to undertake repeated demonstrations.Photo: Mallica Patel.Burgeoning responsibilities and state apathyAn Anganwadi worker is, to cite some definitions of the term, a woman ‘employed to provide additional and supplementary healthcare and nutritional services to children and pregnant women’. Their services come under the POSHAN Abhiyaan programme. They are responsible for the nutrition of children aged three to six who visit the Anganwadi centre, as well as the pregnant and lactating mothers in the panchayat. Anganwadi workers in Gujarat are currently paid Rs 10,000 per month.An Angwadi helper, on the other hand, is responsible for cleaning the Anganwadi, cooking meals for the children and also feeding them at regular intervals. They are currently paid Rs 5,500 per month in Gujarat, which has been unchanged for more than a decade.However, the average Anganwadi worker in Gujarat is constantly beleaguered with unending responsibilities and often the stress of convincing a recalcitrant beneficiary.“We start at 9 am, but we don’t know when the day will end. There are also times when we are called upon to be a part of rallies that are held for ministers who are visiting the panchayat. We are told to come in regular clothes so that we are not recognised as Anganwadi workers. This is the kind of work they expect us to do,” said one Anganwadi worker at the rally.Almost all the workers spoke about their seemingly ceaseless work and the pressure from officials to abide by these duties with no regard to their needs. Their day tends to run till late at night in part because of the additional digital labour they are expected to do.“We are supposed to give pregnant women supplements called ‘matrshakti’ and infants ‘balshakti’, but people are very unhappy with these supplements. They actually throw the packets at us out of frustration. The public is not satisfied with us, and yet we are the ones who have to assure them that we are working in their interests,” said another worker standing close to her.The workers explained how the supplements are unpalatable and usually difficult to consume, leading to a lack of interest. Anganwadi workers are also advised to develop recipes that would make the supplements taste better, thereby showing how the burden of the state is being transferred onto underpaid Anganwadi workers and helpers.A woman stands with her child holding a placard calling for an end to contractual labour and the implementation of a pension scheme for Anganwadi workers guaranteeing them a minimum of Rs 10,000. Photo: Mallica Patel.Increasing digital labourAll the women I spoke to at the rally noted their burgeoning responsibilities due to the increasing digital labour they have to undertake. Earlier, there was the POSHAN tracker application; recently, the Gujarat government introduced the Anganwadi Visit Tracker application, which goes a step further.The POSHAN Tracker application was first introduced by the Union government in 2021 to digitally maintain a record of Anganwadi centres, beneficiary data and the services delivered. The aim was to monitor the progress made in the centres.The newly introduced state application requires workers to fill in details of each house visited, the people in the family, details regarding their identification documents and pictures of those children visiting the centre, which is the toughest job of them all.“We have to capture the women’s and children’s faces, and we are often not able to, so we have to make multiple trips to their homes. When that doesn’t work, we call them over to the Anganwadi. We have to keep hunting for them and their identification documents,” said one worker.Workers insisted that with an already heavy workload, this new addition has led to immense stress. “Sometimes the server is down, so if the server were to restart later at night, they will call us and ask us to make the entries right then. We work day and night,” the worker quoted above added.The workers are also not provided with the appropriate phones to undertake these activities. They complain about using their own phones and internet to conduct these processes, all using the meagre income they receive.Increasing digital labour for Anganwadi workers has been reported in other states as well, such as Tamil Nadu where similar to Gujarat the state introduced an application that increased the workers’ labour manifold.As in Tamil Nadu, here too the application acts as a surveillance mechanism for the state to monitor the Anganwadi worker, although whether the monitoring is leading to any discernible improvement in the services provided by the Anganwadi is dubious, as seen with regard to the poor quality of food supplements.Unimplemented court orderIn August 2025, the Gujarat high court ordered an increase in the Anganwadi workers’ and helpers’ monthly salary from Rs 10,000 to Rs 24,800 and from Rs 5,500 to Rs 20,300, respectively. This was supposed to be implemented retroactively from April 2025, with the arrears paid for the gap months.What should have been a huge victory for the workers remains unimplemented to date. “The order was like candy that they gave us just to silence us, but they don’t really want to do anything. The government doesn’t seem to care for the people who are responsible for taking care of the children and the mothers of this country,” says one worker.Photo: Mallica Patel.The recent budget also mentions that the honorarium for both Anganwadi workers and helpers has been ‘increased’; however, it simply says they will “get Rs. 10000/month and … Rs. 5500/month” respectively. It leaves the question of implementing the order unanswered.Thus, someone unaware of the lack of implementation might take this as a reflection of their current income.Income, not honourIn spite of the promise of the increased honourarium, the recent budget actually sees a reduction in the total budget for the Integrated Child Development Scheme, which covers the POSHAN Abhiyaan.While the budgeted estimates of 2025-26 stood at Rs 2,994.55 crore, the latest budgeted estimate stands at Rs 2,884.43 crore. The POSHAN Sudha Yojana – a scheme which provides nutrition and healthcare support to women and children in predominantly tribal districts – also witnessed a reduction in the budgeted estimates from Rs 89.65 crore to Rs 86.65 crore.Earlier, too, the workers had mobilised themselves and demanded the implementation of the order in other demonstrations as well. However, they are forced to take to the streets owing to apathy from the authorities on the implementation of the order.A worker leading the protest mentioned that the rally was a show of strength to inform the government what they are capable of if this state of inaction continues. “While our labour is glorified, it is not accompanied by an equivalent increase in wages or improvements in our working conditions,” she added.While the government has a very clear plan forward with regards to the state’s temples and sports enclaves, it is overlooking the plight of Anganwadi workers and helpers, who are responsible for upholding the health of the state’s women and children. The vision of the global city has eclipsed the needs of its underpaid working-class women, whose labour continues to be vital but is undervalued in the journey towards becoming a world-class city.*Names have been changed to protect the identities of individuals.The quotes in this article are the author’s free translation from Gujarati.Mallica Patel is a researcher at the Centre for Labour Research and Action, which focuses on the rights and welfare of migrant workers in western India.