Unsung COVID Warriors: ASHA Workers

While India battled COVID-19, ASHA workers have ensured that citizens in rural areas remain aware and safe. But their status as frontline workers remains confined to papers, as they go underpaid, overworked, unrecognized and underappreciated.

Who are ASHA Workers?

In 2005, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare instituted Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) as community health workers under the National Rural Health Mission. ASHAs are meant to facilitate communication between rural populations and the healthcare system. They get performance-based incentives for carrying out duties such as motivating women to give birth in hospitals, ensuring immunization of children, encouraging family planning, keeping demographic records and improving village sanitation.

ASHAs Fate Amidst COVID-19

As the face of the rural healthcare system, ASHA workers had to create awareness around the coronavirus, monitor villagers, trace patients, bring vaccines from sub-centres and ensure people get the jab.

In Punjab, ASHAs were forced to sustain themselves on incentives that the Health Department did not regularly pay. They explained how they had to take loans to buy smartphones to complete COVID-19 surveys. Many hadn’t received the ₹10,000 compensation announced for workers who tested positive. Furthermore, there were instances of workers being put on duty after they tested positive. State-level ASHA union leader, Paramjit Kaur, noted that most workers come from poor families and experience systemic exploitation.

In remote areas of Uttar Pradesh, ASHA workers made a meagre amount of ₹2,250 every month. In pockets of rural Pune, ASHAs used to walk around eight kilometres in hilly regions to fulfil their duties. They have been demanding the administration to provide them with two-wheelers to tackle this.

The state government of Karnataka hasn’t paid workers their honorarium in three months and though 16 lives were lost, only one family was paid a compensation of ₹50,00,000.

On 24 May 2021, ASHA workers across the nation protested against the government for not providing them with PPE kits and paying them minimum remuneration. They demanded the government release ₹5,000 as relief for all frontline warriors across the country, provide a minimum of ₹25,000 as medical compensation, ensure adequate supply of safety equipment and release ₹50 lakh insurance compensation for workers who lost their lives during the first wave.

NHRC Gets Involved

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) observed allegations of poor working conditions and issued notices to the Secretary, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Chief Secretaries of the states to submit reports on the raised issues within six weeks.

These reports had to include details about the number of workers, dues paid to them during the pandemic, arrears, health protection measures, healthcare facilities provided, compensation in the event of fatality, long-term health insurance and social security facilities.

ASHA workers have also demanded that the government define their roles and responsibilities.

And as Pune Zilla Parishad member Rani Shelke rightly said, their every demand is justified as they risk not only their lives but also their families to serve the country in trying times like.

NOTE: This news report was originally written in 2021, at the time of the events taking place, for The Paradigm.