But Nikam has to turn them away. For, on November 30, the anganwadi worker joined the strike call given by her union, the Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Karamchari Sanghatana, and shut her centre, which she has been running for 16 years.

Nikam, along with the estimated eight lakh anganwadi workers in the state, is a foot soldier of the ambitious Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) programme. Kicked off in October 1975 with three population groups in mind children up to the age of six years and pregnant and lactating mothers -- the programme recruits woman in rural districts, trains them in the basics of maternal and child health and deputes them to run centres at the grass-root level. Called anganwadi workers, these womenhave to take care of everything -- from keeping track of the births and deaths in villages under their centre to organisation of pre-school activities for children.

But besides nationwide and global recognition, they have got little in return. Because they are thought to work for ``just'' five hours a day, they are classified as ``volunteers''. Thus teachers are paid an ``honorarium'', not a wage, of Rs 625 a month and the helpers, Rs 375. And officials proudly point out that this honorarium is around Rs 125 more than what anganwadi workers in other states earn.

Now, the Maharashtra anganwadis have decided to take matters in their own hands. The Maharashtra Rajya Anganwadi Karamchari Sanghatana, which has called the strike, claims to have 18,000 members in 18 districts. Its strike is reportedly affecting the working of as many as 39,845 registered anganwadis. The workers want implementation of the recommendations of a committee appointed by the state government itself, urging a hike in thehonorarium.

Set up on October 27 this year, the special committee headed by Maharashtra's Minister for Education, Sudhir Joshi, had agreed to hike the honorarium of teachers in anganwadis to Rs 1,500 and helpers to Rs 925. The panel included Minister for Social Welfare Babanrao Gholap, secretaries of the two mentioned ministries, and representatives of four unions. Later, however, the unions were told that the cash-strapped government had ``no funds'' to absorb the hike, estimated to cost Rs 60 crore.

Fuming, the general secretary of the striking union, M.A. Patil, asks: ``If the government didn't have money to pay the workers in the first place, then why did they promise them a hike?''

Anganwadi workers are distressed at the way they have been treated. Points out Sangita Patil, an angwanwadi teacher at Soneshiv: ``When I started the anganwadi, people asked me, what will you teach our children, song and dance? Now, the children's mothers meet me and ask, `Why don't you open the centre? Our children aremissing the food'.''

The khichri the children crave contains Pro-Vita, a nutritional supplement. Anganwadis are the country's foremost fighters in the battle against malnutrition. Besides ensuring provision of supplementary nutrition to children below six years and pregnant and lactating mothers, angwanwadi workers conduct pre-school activities at their centres, keep records of births and deaths, grade weights of children under their care, as well as visit pregnant and lactating mothers at home to keep tabs on their health.The workers are also roped in for popularising small credit saving schemes for women, family planning and immunisation drives, nutrition for teenage girls and other programmes which require extensive contacts in rural areas.``It's not that we are unwilling to work,'' notes Nikam. ``We just want to be made permanent and we want a hike in honorarium. We are supposed to give the government monthly reports on the progress of the health of women and children reached by our anganwadi. We alsomaintain four detailed registers on births, deaths, health of the mothers and the progress the children are making.'' And the government envisages a still wider role for them, most importantly, disseminating information on the state's policy for women. ``The government is only interested in making these women work more for less,'' charges union leader Kiran Moghe.

The workers' travel expenses are often not reimbursed, and demands for Diwali bonus are pending. ``Often, there are no registers to record births, deaths and weight charts, and we end up paying for them out of our pockets. In my anganwadi, they don't even supply me blank sheets!'' says Patil.At the same time, she says she knows ``our worth. Although we were disappointed when the government said it didn't have have the money to pay us, we are confident we will be paid.'' Officials too admit that the situation will get worrying if the strike drags on. ``We will be deploying Community Health Volunteers at anganwadis to ensure that at least thekhichri is distributed,'' one of them told The Indian Express.

However, with the unions planning to demonstrate before the winter session of the state legislature, the face-off looks set to rage on for now. Meanwhile, it is children like Mamata who will go hungry.