Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, Jan 10: Being a primary work force in the implementation of the Government’s various maternity schemes in rural areas, thousands of ASHA workers are forced to wait for months together to receive ‘peanuts’ in the name of stipend.
In Kashmir, there are more than 8, 000 ASHA workers spread across length and breadth, with the majority of them having served for more than 10-15 years and the wages that they are getting is roughly Rs 2000 per month.
The irony being that even to get these basic wages, they have to wait for months and in some cases even years. The workers have to work round the year and are especially taking care of pregnant ladies in their areas, mostly rural.
A couple of ASHA workers told Excelsior that their work is not easy as it may appear to be. They also said that they have to keep a tab on the expecting females in their areas and even after they deliver their infants.
“It does not stop there; even after a female gives birth to an infant. We have to keep monitoring them till the baby reaches a certain age; it goes on,” said Hameeda, a ASHA worker from District Kupwara.
The Government schemes such as Janani Suraksha Yojana, Janani Shushi Suraksha Krarikram and others would have proven to be non-performing in the absence of these workers who keep looking for such patients in their respective areas make the facilities available to them.
Interestingly, these workers have also been roped in for various programmes being implemented by the Government to keep a check on the diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and breast cancer, the diseases which have seen a surge in recent years.
“It is because of the ASHA workers that the cases of the breast cancer are being reported across Kashmir as we aware the masses. We not only are being paid a minimal amount, but are also made to wait to receive the same,” said Parveena, another ASHA worker.
“The pending wages of scores of ASHA workers have not been released even after the passage of months and in some cases more than a year has passed now,” said Mubeena, District President of ASHA Workers Union, adding that they don’t want these wages, but a regular monthly income with which they could sustain their families.
Apart from other demands, the workers are also pressing that the government should give them the status of workers making them at par with other workers such as Anganwadi workers.
“We should be given the benefits like the workers are getting in other Union Territories; go and see that living standard of a ASHA worker in Delhi-it is far better than those in Kashmir,” she added.
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