Asha workers to go on indefinite strike from Jan 3

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA workers) from across the state will go on an indefinite strike starting January 3 over pending wages.

ASHA workers will stop work in their respective districts and about 20,000 have been expected to gather at Freedom Park in Bengaluru to go on a protest.

“We met the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, B Sreeramulu along with senior officials from the department of health. ASHA workers have not been paid salaries from the past 15 months. Only around Rs 2,000 is being paid a month. We want all the backlog to be cleared,” said, Nagalakshmi D, state secretary, ASHA Workers Union.

They have also sought that as per norms, a consolidated pay of Rs 12,000 be given to them every month. Currently, they have been receiving incentives of Rs 4,000 from the state and anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 6,000 from the centre according to Nagalakhsmi.

“Problems began after they launched ASHA Soft, an application and integrated it with the Reproductive Child Health portal. A third party has been entrusted the responsibility of making the payment to us. Due to some glitches, there has been a delay,” said Nagalakshmi.