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Women health assistants face wage disparity
The principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ seems practically null and void in Telangana. Multipurpose women Health Assistants are facing gender discrimination in the wage parity.
Male HAs are paid Rs 30,000 a month, while the women workers have to be content with just Rs 10,000 wage
Hyderabad: The principle of ‘equal pay for equal work’ seems practically null and void in Telangana. Multipurpose women Health Assistants are facing gender discrimination in the wage parity.
While their male counterparts are paid three times more salary, women workers have been facing discrimination since 2010. The government orders which were issued in the favour of male workers in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh in 2008 are being followed in Telangana State, too.
Around 4,000 female health assistants were recruited for European Commission Scheme through AP District Selection Committee (DSC) in 2003 for the improvement of maternal and child care. Depending on the vacancies, the government had been regularising female health assistants accordingly. As of now, they are as many as 722 female health assistants, who are waiting for regularisation.
According to Government Order no10 (GO) issued on January 8, 2008 the persons who were recruited on the basis of contract would get wages including basic, HRA, TA, DA and other benefits. According to GO No. 10, the male health assistants, lab technicians and pharmacists are getting Rs 30,000 a month whereas, the female health assistants are paid a meagre wage of Rs 10,000.
Aruna, a female health assistant said, “For the last 14 years we have been doing whatever work has been assigned to us by the officials. The assignments include programmes like mother and child health care, vaccination, school children health, pulse polio, deworming, vitamin-A scheme, mission indradhanush, KCR Kits, Measles Rubella vaccination and other programmes.”
Health and Family Welfare Commissioner Karuna Vakati said, “I have nothing to do in this matter. The government has to take the final decision.”
T Manjula, female health assistant, who claimed that she registered over 200 complaints with the Minister for Health Laxma Reddy which proved fruitless, said currently Telangana has around 1,500 vacancies for the post of female health assistants. “We are requesting the government to fill at least 722 vaccines with us,” she added.
