Demand daily allowance of Rs 300 for Corona related work
@hepzia
Mumbai: The Asha (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers across Maharashtra will protest from August 7-9 to demand implementation of pay hikes that the state has already granted to them. Though the Maharashtra government had agreed to pay them a basic of Rs 2000 per month apart from the benefits under various heads, the unions say that they get paid only about Rs 1500 per month. They say that their genuine demands get ignored despite playing a critical role in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
The workers are demanding a daily allowance of Rs 300 for Covid work, that should be retrospectively paid to them from March and continue right through till Corona continues. “Though there won’t be a proper agitation due to Corona, we will lodge a token protest by handing over our list of demands to the government representatives in various areas,” said M.A. Patil, president of the Mumbai wing of the Maharashtra Asha Workers and Gatpravartak Sangh.
“The government gives teachers a salary of over Rs 50,000 per month. Government health staff health workers also receive much higher salaries. However, we are paid a pittance even though we end up doing as much work and compiling as much data as them,” says Manda Dongre, the executive president of the Maharashtra Asha Workers and Gatpravartak Sangh.
There are an estimated 72,000 Asha workers and about 3,500 Gatpravartak or block facilitators across the state. “Though our work is so risky, we are not given PPE or enough masks or gloves or sanitizers. We were given mediclaim of Rs 50 lakh only from April -June, which has been thereafter extended till September only after we protested,” says Dongre.
Mumbai has about 400 Asha workers, while Thane has about 200 of them. They have been demanding regularising them in government jobs, giving them a salary of Rs 18,000 per month, giving them priority while filing up vacant health posts and even issuance of basic identity cards for them. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had also promised cycles to rural Asha workers, but that too has not yet seen the light of the day.
The Asha workers get paid under various heads like for vaccination, conducting family health surveys, identifying newly wedded couples and even following up lactating mothers right till their child reaches age 5. While the rural healthcare workers are paid under 72 identified types of work, the urban cities have about 52 identified types of works that ASHA workers do.
