Hundreds of Female Multipurpose Health Workers (FMPHWs) are on sit down strike for last three weeks not for any flimsy or trivial reason but for denial of their regular salary being employees of the Family Welfare Department. Yet there is nobody to hear their wail and understand what suffering they are going through as their salary remains unpaid and they have no other source of income. For want of money, many of their wards could not get admission in schools. For want of money some of them could not afford medical treatment and passed away. The Government is stuck up in technicalities and turned totally callous to their plight.
They are permanent employees of the State Government, who were recruited through Services Selection Board as per established procedure. These FMPHWs are not getting regular salary for the last several months and thus have taken to street for last 28 consecutive days as the Government apparently turned a deaf ear towards their repeated appeals and series of protests across the State. Ever since the Central Government adopted funding of the Family Welfare Schemes in J&K like other States, disruption has happened in paying them salaries on regular basis. The gap between actual amount required for salary component and the funds released by the Central Government for the same led to irregularity in timely release of monthly salary of these FMPHWs and according to the officials, diversion of Central funds was another reason for this gap. In his this year budget speech the Finance Minister had assured the House of delinking the disbursement of salary from the source of Central Sponsored Funding Scheme. With the passage of time, this gap started increasing and presently the requirement is almost double the funds released by the Central Government for salary component. The Central Government releases around Rs 11 crores each quarter of the year for advance salary of these FMPHWs, whose number is around 1700 whereas the actual requirement for the same is almost double of this amount? Evidently, the Family Welfare Department is unable to fill the widening gap with the result that 1700 Government employees are facing deferment of salary for months at end. The question is whether continuing the deferment of their salaries for one or the other reason is a solution of the problem or that a meeting with the stakeholders and threadbare discussion of the issue including the Central Government is the solution. The State Government has to understand that these are all Government employees recruited by the Service Selection Board through proper procedures of selection and appointment. In legal terms they have a very strong case. When the Central Government decided to adopt uniform policy of financial assistance in this component including the J&K, it was the duty of the Government and the Family Welfare Department to take up the issue there and then find a solution. Obviously, the Government has not done any homework on the issue. Government should work in direction of delinking the salary component from Central Government’s schemes for Centrally Sponsored Schemes. The Government should do whatever is required to put an end to the stalemate and give an assurance to the striking employees that their case will be considered with sympathy and under normal rules governing the Government employees.
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