Nearly 6 lakh Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers are expected to participate in a two-day nationwide strike called by central trade unions from Friday.
A statement released by 10 central trade unions on Thursday said ASHA workers, staff of anganwadis, National Health Mission (NHM) and other schemes would go on strike on Friday and Saturday. The workers will also stage protests and court arrest on Sunday.
The workers are protesting inadequate assistance from the government in the fight against COVID-19, including lack of safety equipment, payment of salary and even risk allowance. The workers are also opposing moves to privatise basic services at government hospitals and in nutrition schemes.
“The scheme workers have been demanding the government withdraw the proposals for privatisation of basic services including health (including hospitals), nutrition (including ICDS and MDMS) and education, make the centrally sponsored schemes like ICDS, NHM and MDMS permanent with adequate budget allocation and give them minimum wages of Rs 21000 per month and pension of Rs 10,000 per month besides providing them with other benefits of ESI and EPF,” Economic Times reported.
ASHA workers have played a key role in contact-tracing, surveys and organising of awareness schemes for the COVID-19 situation. "India’s ASHAs have always acted as a stopgap in the country’s porous health care system, delivering assistance from maternal health to immunisation in its vast rural hinterland,” Bloomberg reported.
The ASHA worker scheme was created in 2005 as part of the National Rural Health Mission.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been sporadic protests and strikes by ASHA workers. In July, around 40,000 ASHA workers went on strike in Karnataka to demand better safety equipment and a hike in fixed salary to Rs 12,000.
There are about 1 million ASHA workers across the country and union leaders told Bloomberg they expected more to join the strike.
