Indian health workers protest for better pay and recognition

Thousands of frontline health workers in the Kerala state of southern India, who have been demonstrating for better salaries and identities from last month, have vowed to continue their protest.

Kerala’s 26,225 female workers, known as recognized social health workers or Ashas (hope for Hindi), are protesting near the state government’s headquarters in Tarawanthapuram.

Demonstrators, who provide significant medical assistance in the country’s rural areas, say they plan to “siege” with the state secretariat in the coming week, if authorities continue to ignore their demands.

Ashas, ​​which are more than a million nationwide, are fighting for better salaries and government “workers”.

Women are currently classified as volunteers, which means that despite playing an important role in maintaining health care in rural and influential areas, no benefits are guaranteed by the government.

On Monday, Shashi Tharoor, a Member of Parliament from Kerala, said that Asha’s volunteers were the “extraordinary heroes” of India’s health care system and “the protests highlight the systemic shortage of community health workers in India and especially in Kerala.”

India’s Federal Health Minister recently told Parliament that the government would increase the privileges for the workers. Meanwhile, authorities have issued a three -month pending payment in Kerala.

The state’s health minister also said that Kerala would request the federal government to recognize these women as a regular worker and not volunteer.

However, the state government has insisted that the money it offers to Ashas is the highest in the country.

But the protesters said that state officials did not engage in talks with them and accused them of using tactics to suppress their protests.

This week, police removed the plastic tarpoline sheet, in which the protesters tied the head head to the place of their sit -in demonstration, causing them to face the direct sun.

Ashas – who receive Rs 7,000 and not salary because they are volunteers and not laborers – they say they want the payment to be increased by Rs 21,000 (0 240.8; 6 186.2) and to the benefits of retirement.

However, state health minister Veena George says 90 % of the tract earn between Rs 10,000-13,500 a month, including privileges.

“They deserve maternity leave, and steps are taken to prevent excessive work burden,” he said.

But some of the protesting women fight these claims.

One of the protesters, Kozpumba Thanksamoni, said he received only Rs 6,300 as an honor in October 2024.

“He deducted Rs 700 for a meeting which I remembered because I was ill and had to go to the hospital.”

He said that when the 45 -year -old joined Ashas 17 years ago, he worked only for an hour or two a day.

He told the BBC, “Now I’m putting so much burden at work that the whole day is not enough.”

“This is a matter of social justice,” Sabora Arifa, one of Asha’s protest coordinators, told the BBC. “People who work for eight hours a day are not volunteers. We have the right to get the status of workers.”

In a country where millions of Indians, especially in remote areas, do not have access to quality health care, Asha workers have played an important role in the past years.

Their work includes going home to raise awareness about nutrition, cleaning, protective vaccines, vaccines, vaccines, vaccines and newborns and pre -birth care.

He played an important role during the integrated pandemic, especially in Kerala, who was previously reported to be a covid case, and has been successfully presented on the outbreak of the Zika and the Napa virus.

Dr. Joe Thomas, a Melbourne -based public health policy analyst, believes that India should change its impression about community health workers whose basic health contributions have been recognized globally.

He told the BBC that the state health officials were doing the midwife in Kerala after freezing the recruits of the midwife. “Maternity care support has been gradually transferred to Ashas.”

According to him, 90 % of women in Kerala receive pre -birth care such as testing, nutritional equipment and advice by Asha volunteers.

Dr. Thomas says “Kerala takes pride in achieving 99 % vaccination.” The success of her vaccination goes to Ashas. Their contribution to their basic health in Kerala is that they are just working people to prevent. “

Protests in Kerala are just the latest in protest of these health workers across India.

Earlier this year, neighboring Karnataka State increased the amount of honor by Rs 10,000 after the strike of Asha volunteers.

And last year, volunteers in Andhra Pradesh staged several state -of -the -art protests. In this month, the state became the first in the country, with an 180 -day maternity holiday, along with the cost of Rs 150,000 ($ 1,723; 1,330), and increased the retirement age from 60 to 62, and increased the retirement age from 60 to 62.