During Direct Samvad with 24 lakh ASHA and Anganwadi workers prime minister says the central share for every health worker will now double
From November this year, the basic salary of over 10 lakh ASHA health workers in the country will double from Rs 1000 to 2000. This is the minimum amount every accredited social health activist (ASHA) will be paid irrespective of the number of women/children they attend to.
Prime minister Narendra Modi, in his first ever Direct Samvad with 24 lakh ASHA and Anganwadi workers on Tuesday announced the doubling of the minimum pay for ASHAs and approximately a 50% jump in salaries of Anganwadi workers. ASHAs are the frontline health workers who are the mainstay of all government efforts such as immunisation, pre and post natal checks and nutrition interventions.
The prime minister spoke of the importance of nutrition, vaccination and cleanliness in raising the living standards of people and keeping them healthy
During the videoconferencing interaction, Modi often greeted the women in their local dialects. While interacting with women from Maharashtra’s Nandurbar, he asked them if the local tea stall he once frequented is still in business. He complimented the women from Uttar Pradesh for their zeal in holding 2000 health melas in one district. One of the women also showed Modi the baby who everyone had taken to be stillborn but who she snatched from the jaws of death.
The prime minister spoke of the importance of nutrition, vaccination and cleanliness in raising the living standards of people and keeping them healthy. The interaction is a part of the events for the Raashtriya Poshan Maah which is aimed at generating awareness and action against malnutrition.
The matter of the money paid to ASHAs as an incentive has always been one of the drawbacks of the National Rural Health Mission – since named the National Health Mission. The fact that these women are required to travel often long distances to do their jobs yet their salaries are even less than the minimum wage has been raised time and again. The government defence usually has been that the basic pay is only the minimum amount an ASHA earns. Her real earnings are from the incentives she gets for vaccinations, pre-natal checks deliveries etc.
