4,000 ASHA workers to take out 'Belagavi Chalo' protest, to press state govt to fulfill promises

Mysuru: About 4,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) from across Karnataka, including 100 from Mysuru, representing 42,000 ASHAs (including 1,700 in Mysuru) are all set to take out a ‘Belagavi Chalo’ protest on Wednesday, to urge the state government to fulfill its promises.

The ASHAs are urging the government to fix an honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month, by combining incentives from the Central government and honorarium of Rs 6,000 (including Rs 1,000 promised in State budget) from the state government.

D Nagalakshmi, general secretary, Karnataka Rajya Samyuktha ASHA Karyakarthara Sangha, told DH, “In January, after ASHAs protested, the government assured of fixing a honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month, from April. They increased the honorarium of Anganwadi and midday meal staff by Rs 1,000, as promised in the budget, but not ASHAs.” 

She explained, “ASHAs get Rs 500 to Rs 3,000 performance-based incentive from the Central government only after entering data of maternal and child health cases on ASHA soft app. Many ASHAs are still unable to upload the data, due to lack of smartphones and internet or network issue. Hence, many are still losing the incentives. So, the state government had promised to help them by getting a fixed monthly honorarium of Rs 10,000.”

Nagalakshmi added, “The state government has started giving Rs 280 per month, as promised for buying smartphones, to upload data on the app. But, buying mobile data and network is an issue.” 

She said, “The Centre has increased non-MCTS (Maternal and Child Tracking System) incentive from Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,500. But they are yet to get that additional Rs 1,000.”

She shared that, earlier the Centre gave team-based incentive of Rs 1,000 to about 27,000 ASHAs in rural health sub-centres. Now, the state government is giving Rs 1,000 team-based incentive, to the remaining 15,000 ASHAs at PHC headquarters and urban centres.

Retirement fund

She pointed out that the Central government has fixed 60 years as the retirement age and plans to give Rs 50,000 as retirement fund. At present, they are supposed to be given Rs 20,000 at the end of the service. But, over the past 10 years, about 1,000 ASHAs have retired in Karnataka, they are yet to get Rs 20,000 each. The government should increase it to Rs 3 lakh, on the lines of West Bengal, Nagalakshmi said. 

She said that the government has removed about 2,000 ASHA facilitators, appointed to supervise/guide every 20 ASHAs. There are proposals to almost double the coverage of the population, from 1,000 per ASHA. Hence, many are anxious about losing jobs. Besides, it would be a burden to ASHAs, as the government doesn’t provide any travel allowance, Nagalakshmi said. 

The association has already written letters to the Prime Minister and President of India, to fulfill their long-pending demand to recognise ASHAs as workers and provide minimum wages, PF, ESI and other benefits.