Rahul slams govt over Asha workers’ strike to demand better benefits
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday hit out at the Centre over the ASHA health workers’ strike demanding better service conditions and benefits, saying the government was “mute” already, but now maybe “blind and deaf” also.
“ASHA workers take health protection to homes across the country. They are truly health warriors, but today they are forced to go on strike for their own rights,” Mr Gandhi tweeted in Hindi.
“The government was mute already, but now maybe blind and deaf also,” the former Congress president said tagging a media report about workers under the ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), anganwadi, and National Health Mission being on a twoday nationwide strike from Friday.
The two-day nationwide strike by almost 6 lakh Asha workers has been called by central trade unions against the Centre for not providing adequate assistance — lack of safety equipment, delay in pittance — amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Asha workers have played a significant role in contact-tracing, carrying out surveys and organising awareness schemes for the coronavirus in India.
They want better and timely pay, and a legal status that ensures minimum wages, to sustain their work of helping Indian officials track down high-risk contacts of Covid-19 patients across slums and hard-toreach rural parts of the country.
Losing the ASHAs would not only threaten India’s virus-containment effort, but also impact the other essential health services they provide to rural households that range from child vaccinations to tuberculosis control.