ASHA workers threaten to strike work from Friday

Hubballi: Close on the heels of the state government pacifying doctors employed on contract, who were assured that their jobs would be regularised soon, and resumed duty soon afterwards, ASHA workers have now raised the banner of revolt, threatening to go on an indefinite strike from Friday.
From tracing contacts of infected patients to raising awareness about Covid-19 among the public, ASHA workers have been at the vanguard of Karnataka’s fight against the pandemic, and now, they want their efforts acknowledged.They want the government to provide personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and a hike in honorarium, and want their demands met before Friday.
Secretary of Karnataka State Samyukta Asha Workers’ Association (KSSAWA) Nagaralakshmi D said that ASHA workers had submitted scores of memoranda to ministers, MLAs, deputy commissioners and MLCs.
“But our demands are not being met nor have we been called for a discussion. As many as 42,000 ASHA workers have been visiting each and every household across Karnataka. We have been instrumental in reaching nearly 1.6 crore households, many of which were in containment zones. We have been deployed at fever clinics, for collecting swabs and have been working in tandem with screening teams. The Union health ministry too has appreciated the role of ASHA workers of Karnataka,” Nagalakshmi told TOI.
Dharwad district vice-president of KSSAWA Bhuvana Ballari said that they were working without PPE kits at our workplaces, while the error in the data software had made uploading of data an onerous task. “We have been demanding that our monthly honorarium be fixed at Rs 12,000. Since the government has turned a deaf ear to our pleas, all ASHA workers will abstain from work from Friday till our demands are fulfilled,” Bhuvana added.
Other ASHA workers Bharati Shettar, Annapurna Giriyappagoudar, Shanta Chavan, Prema Kabbur expressed regret over the decision to shirk work, but in the same vein, pointed out that they had been left with no choice to attract the government’s attention to their plight.