A fight for survival Premium

ASHAs in Kerala protest for fair wages, garnering support from activists, politicians, and civil society in a massive movement.

Sathi, an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) of Kerala and her colleagues have been living on the footpath in front of the Government Secretariat for the past month-and-a-half. Braving the scorching sun and the intermittent summer showers, she and her comrades have been sleeping rough on the footpath, to wake up next morning invigorated and all determined to fight for better wages.

As the day progresses, the footpath, the venue of the protest, buzzes with people. Social activists, politicians, and people from all walks of life are pouring in pledging their support for the health workers and thus helping them keep their spirits high. Fiery speeches of the protesters as well as their supporters electrify the atmosphere. The unexpected summer showers at night have not lowered their spirits.

A section of the 26,125-strong community of ASHAs in Kerala went on a total offensive on February 10, because the government had not paid them their meagre remuneration — honorarium of ₹7,000 and incentives to the tune of ₹3,000 — for months together. They were also demanding a hike in honorarium from ₹7,000 to ₹21,000 and a lump sum of ₹5 lakh when they retire at 62 years

Forty-five days on, and a week into the indefinite fast, they refuse to be broken even when uncertainty looms large.

What began as a peaceful protest by a few hundred ASHAs in front of the Secretariat has grown so much in strength that it has become one of the largest rights agitation and women’s movement seen in recent years, making it difficult for the government and the political dispensation to ignore this fight.

The ASHA scheme was conceived by the Union government two decades ago under the National Rural Health Mission in 2005, when they were enrolled as community health volunteers of the Health department. While the State single-handedly takes up the financial burden of paying the honorarium, the burden of the incentives is split between the Union and the State governments in a 60:40 ratio.

Sindhu Vinod’s day begins early. As an ASHA of Vathikkudi in Idukki, she has to report at 8.30 a.m. at the community health centre. As the day proceeds, she accompanies pregnant women to the nearby antenatal clinic and later ensures that children in her ward are taken for immunisation. She also finds time to visit the bedridden elders in her ward. In between there are other house calls. Assisting one who is down with fever, checking on a new mother and baby in one of the tribal hamlets and ensuring the home delivery of medicines to a TB patient.