Accredited Social Health Activists workers demand redressal of grievances

Visakhapatnam: Members of AP ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) Workers Union staged a protest in support of their long-pending demands in Visakhapatnam on Thursday.

A slew of demands put forth by them were salary should be hiked to Rs 6,000 per month, clearing the arrears of various schemes, uniform allowance and providing job security. They also sought the government to implement PF, ESI and accident Bhima schemes. Conducting training sessions, recruitment of new activists and allotting more sets of uniforms per year were their other demands.

“We want our government to provide Rs 6,000 salary per month for all the ASHA workers as the Kerala government has been paying Rs 7,000 for the same job. In Visakhapatnam district, there are 2,000 ASHA workers, who are rendering services round- the-clock.

So, the authorities should pay listen to our voices,” said S Aruna of the union. Claiming that they were discrepancies in their wages, the activists said in the last six months they haven’t received the grants, hence, they were facing financial crisis.

ASHA workers are involved in important areas of activities such as maternal and child health, family planning, communicable and non-communicable diseases and immunisation which were identified to determine their basic slab of earning incentives.