On Monday, Vikas Sheel, joint secretary, Union ministry of health and family welfare department, said the government has no plans to introduce a fixed monthly salary for Accredited Social Healthcare Activists (Asha) health workers due to the financial crisis in the country.

Sheel said that at present there is no solution. Asha programme is considered to be incentive-based and a volunteering job. The state government can take a resolution to pay them from its own resources, Andhra Pradesh, pays them Rs 10,000 a month.

Above 44,000 Asha workers in Karnataka are demanding a fixed monthly pay of Rs 12,000. At present, they get Rs 4,000 per month from the state government, apart from their performance-based incentives. Since last year, these activists have staged 350 protests across the state which includes three mega protests in Bengaluru.

Sheel, who is on a two-day visit in Bengaluru, agreed that the health workers do play a central role in operation of various health programmes, such as TB identification, immunization, antenatal check-up and delivery of pregnant women. Women working as Ashas should volunteer to do the job. It is not a full-time job and they are trained as per the demand for health services.

On 3rd January was the latest protest by As has and they had gathered at Freedom Park for the release of incentives which is pending for 15 months. The pending amount was released after the protest.

Source: ET Healthworld