The ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) workers in rural and urban areas are set to get Rs 1000 per month said state health minister, Mangal Pandey. This amount will be monthly incentive for healthcare workers.
The new incentive would be effective from January 1 this year and a resolution in this regard would be adopted soon. There is one facilitator for 20 ASHA workers in the state and one ASHA worker for every 1,000 people. This payment would be from the state exchequer with an additional annual load of Rs 120 crore.
But this announcement has gone well with those who are the real beneficiaries. Shashi Yadav, Bihar state president of ASHA Workers Union talking to Newsd contradicted health minister’s announcement and said, “ First of all Rs 1,000 is monthly honorarium and not incentive. We met the Principal Secretary in context of ongoing strike to which he replied- A fixed honorarium of Rs 1,000 will be given to ASHA workers. On daily work basis a worker gets incentive and not monthly basis. ASHA workers in Bihar for the first time will have facility of ‘Service Book’ which became possible due to continuous struggle against state sponsored discrimination.”
She further added- Prime Minister Modi made an announcement on ‘Monthly Honorarium’ to ASHA workers but now Bihar’s health minister has made an announcement declaring Rs 1,000 as ‘Monthly Incentive’ which practically is ‘Monthly Honorarium’. This is how BJP leaders mislead common man.
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This was said in context when last year in September, Prime Minister Modi had promised a hike in their monthly honorarium from the month of October. He said- the revised incentive will come into effect from October and it will reflect in their salaries from November onwards which would be Diwali gift for them.
Reaching out to Principal Secretary of health ministry, the official refused to comment on the decision taken by the government.
It must be noted that ASHA workers in Bihar were on indefinite strike for 38 days of which hunger strike was an integral part. They also had to blockade the railways. During this period, four ASHA workers lost their lives. The state has 93,687 ASHA workers including 45,000 facilitators.
