Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers demand consolidated pay of ₹24,000 a month

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), who continue to receive a maximum wage of ₹3,500 a month, are demanding grant of consolidated pay of ₹24,000 a month and job regularisation.

On Friday, ASHAs, who work in the hill villages of the State, staged a demonstration in Chennai in support of their long-pending demands.

“First of all, they are called activists but they are engaged as scheme workers under the National Health Mission. They work round-the-clock without the status of workers. The Centre pays a fixed honorarium of ₹2,000 a month. Apart from this, they receive activity-based incentives of around ₹1,500. So, they are paid a maximum of ₹3,500 a month,” Vahidha Nizam, general secretary of Tamil Nadu ASHA Paniyalar Sangam, said.

Noting that ASHA workers implement the State government schemes in the hill villages, she said: “Health is a State subject. So, the State government has a responsibility but it is not shelling out anything towards the wages for ASHA workers. Our demand, at the national-level, is to grant consolidated wages of ₹24,000 a month — the minimum wages fixed by the Seventh Pay Commission.”

Some of the neighboring States of Tamil Nadu had been paying ₹10,000 as consolidated wages for ASHA workers. This included Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, and recently, Puducherry, she said and added: “Tamil Nadu has only 2,650 ASHA workers compared to many other States that have more than 15,000 to 20,000 workers. For a government that has vowed to uphold social justice, it needs to do justice to workers and justice to women workers. The State government should declare a consolidated pay of ₹15,000 per month as its contribution. The workers should be appropriately absorbed into the Health department according to their qualifications and services. Their services should be regularised.”

She pointed out that ASHA workers played a pivotal role in improving some of the health indicators in the State. In response to their representation recently, the Health Minister had assured them to take up the issue of wages with the Centre.