ASHAs end strike after CM Siddaramaiah agrees to increase monthly honorarium to Rs 10,000

Bengaluru: Protesting Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) in Karnataka withdrew their strike on Friday, following a “successful” meeting of the Karnataka Rajya Samyukta ASHA Karyakartera Sangha with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

This decision came four days into their indefinite protest that began on Tuesday. Members of the union held a meeting with the CM at his residence ‘Krishna’ in the presence of the state health minister Dinesh Gundurao and other higher officials.

Siddaramaiah assured them that their monthly honorarium would be increased to a fixed, consolidated amount of Rs 10,000 and assured that additional incentives, sick leaves would be examined in time at the departmental level. He also told them that while the one-time retirement benefit could not be promised now, the proposal would be revisited in the future.

ASHA workers noted that the CM had also committed to invite the union for another meeting to discuss increments ahead of the upcoming budget in March.

“All ASHAs were instantly happy with the decision. While some of our other demands have not been addressed, we are going to continue to fight for them, but for now, we are content with this decision,” said Rama T C, vice president of the union.

Additionally, the state health commissioner Sivakumar K B, who visited Freedom Park on Friday, dispelled fears that protesting ASHAs would be removed from their jobs. “It was wrongly interpreted. No order was issued that mentioned that ASHAs would be removed from their jobs. We only issued an order to take preventive measures to ensure no important service was affected due to the protest,” he told DH.

Dr Nagalakshmi Chaudhary, president, Karnataka State Commission for Women, who visited Freedom Park before this meeting where hundreds of ASHAs had camped for over three days. She assured that she would speak to the CM and also directed health department officials to rectify lapses in the system that could affect the ASHAs effective services.