No likely settlement in sight for protesting ASHAs

A traditional Chakyarkoothu artist narrates the ordeal of protesting ASHAs as part of his street performance outside the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.
| Photo Credit: NIRMAL HARINDRAN

The 55-day-old protest by Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) for improved remuneration and retirement benefits is dragging on with no likely settlement in sight as the government is going ahead with its decision to set up a committee to study their issues, even as the ASHA action council vowed that it was not acceptable to them.

The representatives of Kerala ASHA Health Workers’ Association (KAHWA) has also accused the other trade unions which participated in the conciliatory talks on Thursday of trying to “pressurise” them into accepting the suggestion of setting up a committee, as the only acceptable way of ending the current stalemate.

KAHWA leaders said that the suggestion of setting up a committee was immediately accepted wholeheartedly by all the trade unions and that it was a “pre-planned” move to force them into withdrawing the agitation, which would naturally lead to a loss in the momentum gained by the strike so far.

The State vice president of KAHWA, S. Mini, said that they cannot believe it to be otherwise, or else, why would the government not agree to the compromise formula of KAHWA that a hike in honorarium of ₹3,000 be given to ASHAs in the interim (before the committee submitted its report).

Willingness

Dismissing the allegation by the INTUC leader, R. Chandrasekharan, that the talks had failed because of the unrelenting attitude of KAHWA, she said that they were not interested in dragging the strike, which is why they had been willing to come down from their demand for an honorarium of ₹21,000 to ₹10,000 for the time being, while waiting for the committee’s report. But even this was not agreeable to the government.

ASHA action council also said that they were not against the committee suggested by the Minister as such, as there were several problems related to the duties, service conditions and welfare issues of ASHAs, which needed to be studied. However, asking the ASHAs who had been agitating on the streets for 55 days, hoping for the government’s benevolence, to wait for three months for a decision on honorarium was inhuman.

Meanwhile, the government has seized the opportunity to buy time to bargain with the ASHAs and has decided to go ahead with the setting up of the said committee, which will have representatives from the Health, Finance and Labour departments to study the problems of ASHAs.

It has also ruled out any further talks for the time being as all the cards have been laid before the ASHAs. This seems to have left the ASHAs in the lurch, as they are forced to keep up the momentum of the strike.

Leader of the Opposition V.D. Satheesan told reporters in Kozhikode that the line toed by INTUC leader R. Chandrasekharan on the issue of the agitation by ASHAs was not the same as that of the Congress party or the UDF.