Volunteers or Workers? Women Scheme Workers in India’s Health and Child-Development Systems and the Labour Codes

ASHAs, anganwadi workers and mid-day meal cooks, almost all women, sustain India’s public health and child-development programmes but are classified as volunteers or honorary workers. This paper examines whether the four Labour Codes, enacted in 2019–2020 but not yet in force, change their legal position. Using doctrinal analysis of statutes and Supreme Court decisions, together with health-policy and care-economy literature, it shows that judicial treatment has been inconsistent, with Ameerbi (2007) denying civil-post status and Maniben (2022) extending gratuity to anganwadi workers, and that the Codes do not expressly resolve whether scheme workers are employees. The paper recommends express inclusion in the Codes’ rules, implementation of the 45th Indian Labour Conference recommendations, guaranteed minimum remuneration and extension of safety and maternity protection.