No ASHA in villages today
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers struck work today to demand the promised compensation, salaries and protective gear amid the second wave of COVID-19 in India. Rural India remains under-resourced amid the rising cases of COVID and the front-line workers have not been supported enough by the government, are under-paid, they allege.
One ASHA worker is deployed in every village, as a part of the National Rural Health Mission, to spread information, create awareness on health and its social determinants, as well as to mobilise the community to take part in public health missions. For the past year and a half, most ASHA workers have been on ground, creating awareness about COVID-19, managing resources and are now urging people to get vaccinated.
The All-India Committee of Scheme Workers’ Federation of India (SWFI) said that ASHA workers have not been provided with essential PPE kits to safeguard their lives and several workers have been infected, of whom many succumbed to the virus, according to a report in The New Indian Express.
In Karnataka, these health workers have demanded immediate release of pending compensation and insurance money. The ASHA workers have not been paid for two months, they allege. The protesters have also demanded that the government provide Rs 5000 as a COVID-19 relief package to all ASHA workers, as announced for other healthcare workers.
CPI (M) leader Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami on Sunday urged the government to fulfill the demands of ASHA workers. Speaking to a Kashmir-based newspaper Tarigami said, "These workers are asked to conduct surveys, report cases, get medical help to the infected, monitor the patients and follow up with the recovered ones. This is in addition to the vaccination duties for almost eight to nine hours a day."
In June 2020, ASHA workers protested on the call of the All India Coordination Committee of ASHA Workers (of Centre of Indian Trade Unions) and submitted a 14-demand charter to the local authorities, with similar demands made today.