Mangalore, December 5: The members of 'Indian ASHA Workers' Association', affiliated to the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner's office here on Wednesday, demanding fulfillment of their demands such as government employee status and minimum monthly wages.
Coming down heavily against the Central and state governments, state general secretary of BMS Suryanarayana Rao said that the government had been robbing the country in guise of their economic policies to privatise various government institutions in the country. “Our country is being sold to foreign companies. Like their policy to shut down government schools in the state, they want to privatise government hospitals. Because of these reasons, the efforts of the ASHA health workers, who improve the health conditions of patients in rural areas and provide free medical education and assistance, are being ruined,” he said.
Raising their grouse s against the government, president of the association Vijayalakshmi said that the delay in receiving allowances from the higher authorities had put the ASHA workers into great difficulty.
“While the rates of household commodities have increased four-fold in the past year, they have to survive with meagre wages, making their existence miserable. From the past three years ASHA workers have toiled to provide better medical assistance to patients in rural areas, whereas their condition is no better. What kind of justice is it? Do they not deserve salaries like government employees,” she demanded.
The protesters demanded that their services be made permanent along with granting government employee status to them. They demanded that their minimum monthly wages be increased to Rs 6000, together with doubling the financial incentives for their services and their travel allowance. The health workers also wanted provision of medicare facilities.
Prior to the protest, the health workers took out a procession from the BMS office to the DC's office near State Bank.
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) are community health workers working under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), who are assigned by the government to provide medical assistance to patients in rural areas.
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