Vijayawada: Asha workers raise pitch for regularisation of services

Vijayawada: Demanding fair payment, better facilities and regularisation of service, thousands of Asha workers staged protests against the State and Central government across Andhra Pradesh on Monday.

The Asha workers under the auspices of the Andhra Pradesh Asha workers Union (CITU) staged a protest near Community Health Centre in Kandrika, Vijayawada. They alleged that both the State and central governments are not responding to their problems in spite of their exemplary service during the Covid pandemic.

The ASHAs are working in the country as part of the National Rural Health Mission. They Asha workers demanded that their services be regularised and government should pay Rs50 lakh insurance and pay risk allowance of Rs10,000 per month to every Asha activist. They also demanded to give exemption to the pregnant and lactating Asha workers from the Covid duties and not allot the works that are not related to Asha workers.

The government should provide better treatment to the Covid infected Asha workers and their family members, payment of Rs10,000 wages in a single instalment and provide cell phone facility besides , Covid-19 protective materials like gloves, masks and sanitisers etc.

Andhra Pradesh Asha workers Union (CITU) State general secretary K Dhanalakshmi and others leaders spoke.