DCW's Karmayogini programme gives Delhi women workers nutrition kits, rights advice

The Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) held a programme on health, nutrition, safety and legal rights for women workers in Delhi on Thursday, October 15, 2026, under the title "Karmayogini: Nutrition for Strength, Awareness for Progress". During a session called "Shramik Poshan Samvad", Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta and National Commission for Women (NCW) chairperson Vijaya Kishore Rahatkar spoke with women workers and handed out nutrition kits. DCW chairperson Lata Gupta opened the programme. Speakers urged the workers to eat balanced diets, go for regular health check-ups, insist on safe working conditions and learn about the legal protections available to working women, and pointed them to government schemes including Palna Ghars, Atal Canteens, the Delhi Lakshmi Yojana and Pink Saheli cards.

Conversations about work-life balance usually centre on office jobs: flexible hours, leave policies, burnout. For women who do manual and labour-intensive work, the questions are more basic: whether they eat well enough, whether they ever get a health check-up, and whether their workplace is safe. A programme that puts nutrition and health check-ups at the centre starts from those basics.

The emphasis on legal awareness matters as much as the food kits. Knowing what protections exist, and where to go when something goes wrong, is part of a worker's security. Bringing the chairpersons of both the national and the Delhi women's commissions into the same room as the workers gives them a direct line to the bodies whose job is to act on such complaints.

The schemes named at the event are tools that can save women time and money in daily life. The Pink Saheli card, for example, is the smart card that women in Delhi now need for free travel on DTC and cluster buses; it is issued free to women and transgender residents aged 12 and above with an Aadhaar or voter ID linked to a Delhi address, and is mandatory for free rides since September 1. Linking workers to such schemes at a health event is a practical way to make sure benefits reach the people they were designed for.

The test, as with any awareness event, will be what follows. One programme and a set of nutrition kits cannot by itself change diets or workplaces. What can make a difference is regular follow-up: health camps, help desks for scheme enrolment, and quick action by the commissions on complaints that women workers bring.

Short-term: Women workers who attended received nutrition kits and information on health check-ups, legal rights and how to access Delhi government schemes.

Long-term: If the commissions follow up with regular outreach, more women workers could enrol in welfare schemes, seek health care earlier and report unsafe working conditions.

Who is affected: Women workers in Delhi, their families, the Delhi Commission for Women, the National Commission for Women and the Delhi government departments that run the schemes.

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