ASHA workers to go on indefinite protest from Friday

About 30,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA workers) will hit the streets of the City tomorrow staging a protest against not payment of their dues.

Starting from City railway station at 11 am on Friday, these workers will reach Freedom Park where they will sit on an indefinite protest.

Asha workers said that they have not been paid their dies for months and since communication with officials yielded no results, they have taken to protest. They had also met with home minister B Sreeramulu and other officials from the department of health and family welfare earlier this week.

Nagalakshmi B, Asha workers have not been paid salaries from the past 15 months and that they did not get a constant income. "Only around Rs 2,000 is being paid a month. Even as we are part of the major state and national health scheme implementation, we have not been paid our due. We want all that is due to be cleared first," she said.

They have also sought that as per norms, a fixed pay of Rs 12,000 be given to them every month. Currently, Ashas have been receiving incentives of about Rs 4,000 from the state government while they get about Rs 6,000 from the union government according to Nagalakhsmi.

Blaming this on the linking of Asha worker's pay to the RCH portal and a software Asha Soft, they have sought that their payments be made directly without involving a third party, like before.