ASHA workers lay siege to Secretariat in Kerala, steps up agitation

ASHA workers stage a sit-in protest in front of the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
| Photo Credit: Nirmal Harindran

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), who have been agitating in front of the government Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala for the past 35 days under the banner of Kerala ASHA Health Workers’ Association (KAHWA), laid siege to the Secretariat on Monday in a bid to intensify their agitation.

Life came to a standstill along the arterial MG Road in the capital as thousands of ASHAs, from all over the State, blockaded the North Gate (the front gate) of the Secretariat.

The police had blocked traffic along the MG road and secured the Secretariat gates much earlier, which led ASHAs to stage a sit-in in front of the North Gate.

KAHWA leaders declared that they would not disperse, till the government “opened its eyes” to their fight to secure basic rights.

The few hundred ASHAs agitating in front of the Secretariat had become the strong and collective voice of the 10-lakh plus ASHAs across the country, whose issues are the same.

They could bring national attention to the plight of ASHAs across the country, the overworked and underpaid foot soldiers of the Health Ministry, forcing the government to acknowledge in Parliament the invaluable service ASHAs were rendering at the grassroots.

Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda said in Rajya Sabha that the incentive pattern of ASHAs would be revised but did not specify a timeframe.

The State government, on the other hand, seems to have washed their hands off the issue. It has adopted the stance that it was up to the Centre to change the employment status of ASHAs and declare them as workers eligible for at least minimum wages and not just health volunteers

Despite appeals from various quarters, including requests by Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan, that the Chief Minister intervene to call the women for at least a discussion, the government has not budged.

Mr. Satheesan and other members of the UDF visited ASHAs on Monday and declared solidarity with their agitation.

Addressing ASHAs Mr. Satheesan and senior Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said that the government seems to have “declared war” on ASHAs and that the Chief Minister seems to have taken a “vengeful stance that the government must not give in to this agitation.”

LDF convener T.P. Ramakrishnan said that the government “empathised” with the ASHAs’ cause but that “the ball was in the Centre’s court.”