Profession Watch: ASHA Volunteers & Turmoils

India is country with abundant population. Here Services of volunteers/Activists who work for so called 'Royalty'/'Honorarium' is burgeoning phenomenon. That too with unemployment haunting families, Women with little education background opt for volunteer services such as ANGANWADI-aka Day Care schools run by Govt. who take care of small kids with parents not having financial ability to admit their wards to upmarket Day care or Kindergartens. These Volunteers often face hiccups with respect to payment they have to receive from Govt. as salary or Honorarium. Ditto role of volunteers is played by women folks in Primary Health sector. These volunteers are called ASHA-DIDI's or ASHA-AMMA or ASHA-AKKA.

The Term 'ASHA' means hope in Indian languages and this scheme called ASHA- Accredited Social Health Activist is aimed at extending helping hands to folks of rural India in need of primary health services or information. Under this scheme Activists are provided a honorarium of Rupees 1000 by Central Govt. While remaining money has to be released by State Governments.

ASHA-Activists Protest @ Bengaluru Freedom Park: Courtesy Prajavani

Unfortunately  these ASHA Volunteers in state of Karnataka are facing apathy from State Govt. officials who have failed to deposit their hard earned money to their accounts through an Online portal called Asha Soft portal due to various reasons like offices not uploading the data of these activists earnings to Web-portal due to carelessness or due to unavailability of Internet or Power shut down etc. These Volunteers who are paid different fees as per the type of work assigned to them such as: Pregnant women Care: Rs.300, Participation in Meetings Rs.150, Escorting Pregnant Women for Delivery Rs.200, Participation in Vaccination schemes Rs.100. Such Honorariums/royalty is unpaid for months together by our State Govt. and These ASHA-Volunteers had stormed Bengaluru Freedom Park from various parts of state to demand for their rights and in spite of extensive Media Coverage, our State Govt. officials have shown blind-eye to these volunteers demands. The demand of these activists is to give fixed wages of Rupees Six Thousand like many other state governments such as Assam and Rajasthan have implemented the same successfully. While the Central Govt provides 1000 Rupees Grant State Govt is suppose to release same matching Grant which is unfortunately not getting deposited in their accounts. Totally in Karnataka alone 37000 ASHA Activists are in rolls. Will Govt. show concern towards these volunteers? and ease out their life is 6000 Rupees question haunting these women folks. Most annoying fact is they are utilized as brand ambassadors of Govt. Programmes to project the achievements of Govt. in their Publicity hoardings as "Biggest Network of Activists in World- ASHA."

Also the most disheartening fact about Women Workers in our Nation is unequal wages given to workers based on Gender in many unorganised sectors like farming construction and garment industries. The columnist Roopa Hassan, in Prajavani newspaper has rightly pointed out the fact that many work that demands patience is handed over to women folks as they possess that knack and are given a smaller pay package.  

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