Dressed in black saris and carrying red CITU flags, several hundred anganwadi workers walked through the streets of Visakhapatnam city on Friday, their voices rising in slogans as they made their way towards the Collectorate. Many wore placards fashioned as tabards, printed with demands ranging from a minimum wage of ₹26,000 to the scrapping of the Nava Chetana application.

The rally began at Jagadamba Junction and proceeded through the Clock Tower area, and the King George Hospital (KGH) before converging at the Collector’s office, with workers from across the district taking part.

Addressing the gathering, district president L. Devi and secretary K. Venkata Lakshmi said Mr. Naidu, then in the Opposition, had promised to raise anganwadi wages, but the assurance remained unfulfilled two years after the government took office. They said wages had not been revised by either the State or the Centre in seven years, even as prices had risen and workloads increased with the introduction of new mobile applications, including Nava Chetana, and the addition of election-related duties.

CITU district secretary R.K.S.V. Kumar alleged that the government had extended concessions worth thousands of crores of rupees to large corporations while ignoring the wage demands of anganwadi workers. He recalled that leaders now in government had visited the workers’ protest camps during a 42-day strike under the previous administration and had promised a wage hike upon assuming power, a pledge he said remained unmet.

The union leaders said the agitation would continue until the wage revision was announced, with CITU pledging its support to the workers “at every stage” of the protest.

As the Collector and Joint Collector were unavailable at the time, a memorandum was submitted to District Revenue Officer Visweswara Naidu.