ASHA workers rue lack of basic gear across Valley
Irfan Tramboo
SRINAGAR, May 20: Authorities might be putting the lives of pregnant women in the rural areas of Kashmir at risk by not providing them with the necessary protective gear when they are taken to the concerned hospitals for the mandatory COVID-19 testing.
Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers who do the job of taking such women to the hospital in the rural areas told Excelsior that they are provided with the vehicles and are asked to huddle all the pregnant women due for the tests together and take them to the hospitals without providing them any protective gear. The ASHA workers themselves lack basic protective gear.
It is to be mentioned here that the government has made it mandatory for expecting women in the 8th or 9th month of pregnancy to undergo COVID-19 test in order to put in place the required arrangements if the test results are positive.
“We must have facilitated around 40 such women in last less than one month. They were taken to the hospitals, but all this is happening without any protective gears provided to them or us,” an ASHA from one of the Budgam’s Red Zone area told Excelsior.
The workers said that there are all the chances that they might catch the infection if only one person is infected in the vehicle they are traveling in.
“The situation is the same almost everywhere, we have taken around 30 such ladies for testing, huddled in the ambulance in last less than one month; those ladies are at risk, we are at risk,” an Asha worker from one of the block in district Baramulla told Excelsior.
Another ASHA from the district Anantnag told Excelsior that they just tell these women to wear masks as no protective gears are provided to them.
”Then the ASHA, along with the ladies travel together without effective protection,” she said. It is to be mentioned here that at least 13 pregnant women from the district have so far tested positive for COVID-19.
The story does not end there. Being the ground force amid COVID-19 pandemic, the ASHAs working across Kashmir valley san necessary protective gear required as they carry out surveys and keep a track of pregnant ladies in their respective blocks.
All the workers did not want to be named after one of their senior colleagues had to face the music when her subordinates in Sopore demanded the protective gear. Out of 318 ASHAs, only 9 were provided with the protective gear resulting in resentment. The block coordinator was relieved by the authorities.
These ASHAs are complaining that they have been given little in the name of protective gear such as masks, gloves, and PPEs, while some said that they have been literally given nothing to protect themselves during the pandemic.
“We are told to use one mask for 10 straight days; we buy the gloves ourselves and with regard to masks, we are using handmade ones,” an ASHA from Anantnag said.
Some of the ASHAs, working in the red zones in various districts, especially in Budgam have been categorically told that there are no protective gears available while asking them to assist a number of teams carrying out surveys in such zones.
“At least three teams were sent in by the Health Department to conduct some surveys and we were told to assist them in doing so; while the members of those teams were covered head to toe, we were out with no protection,” another ASHA from Budgam said.
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