Bengaluru: ASHA workers, who served as frontline team during the peak of Covid pandemic, threatened Government to launch a Statewide agitation as they did last year if an allocation of Rs 12,000 per month is not made for them in the upcoming State Budget. They have complained that they have been receiving incomplete and insufficient wages and incentives.
ASHA Workers’ Union State Secretary D. Nagalakshmi said that “We get Rs 4,000 from the State and we are also supposed to get money from the Central Government for carrying out certain tasks. The tasks we have done should be updated onto the ASHA Nidhi software, she added, and stressed that this work has not been completed as yet.
She informed that though the Union Government has released fund, it has released only Rs. 3000 instead of Rs. 6000. Owing to this uncertainty, the workers no longer want an honorarium but a fixed salary. Further, we have also not received Rs. 50 lakh compensation from the Centre, promised for the families of those ASHA workers who died due to COVID – 19. Apart from Covid, ASHA workers conduct a number of surveys on a day-to-day basis and are part of antenatal and post-natal care of mother and children, she added.
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