Vijayan govt faces storm over ASHA workers’ stir as Congress joins in, CITU blames Centre

The CPI(M) leadership and the Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government have disapproved of the stir, alleging that it was “politically motivated” and that the protesters have “fallen into the trap of anarchist groups”.

On Thursday, the ASHA Workers Federation, affiliated to the CPI(M)’s trade union wing CITU, will take out marches to various Union government offices in a bid to put the blame on the BJP-ruled Centre for the crisis.

The ASHA workers are community health volunteers under the National Health Mission (NHM), who are known as foot soldiers of the state health department.

Kerala has about 30,000 ASHA workers, who get a monthly honorarium of Rs 7,000 from the state government and Rs 2,000 from the Union government. The honorarium has allegedly not been paid to them for the last three months.

The protesting ASHA workers have been demanding that their honorarium be increased to Rs 21,000 a month. Besides, they have sought Rs 5 lakh as retirement benefit at the age of 62.

Many ASHA workers have been complaining about their long working hours and lack of social security. As the current agitation entered the third week, the state health department on Tuesday issued an ultimatum to the protesters, asking them to join duty. On their part, the ASHA workers have decided to intensify their stir from Thursday.

Senior CPI(M) leader and CITU state general secretary Elamaram Kareem said Wednesday: “An insignificant organisation is behind the agitation. The media attention has now enthused them. This is not the way of conducting agitation. Their agitation has put the state health sector into crisis. We had held several agitations for them, but the Union government has taken a stand that ASHA workers are not workers, only volunteers. The agitators did not consult us before starting the protest.”

A former industries minister, Kareem compared the ASHA workers’ protest with the 2015 agitation by the tea estate workers in Munnar to press for an increase in bonus and wages, which was led by a women collective Pombilai Orumai keeping the trade unions at bay. The Munnar stir had yielded mixed results. “Certain anarchist organisations have misled the ASHA workers now,’’ he charged.

Reacting to the CITU-affiliated ASHA workers’ proposed protest, senior Congress leader and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly, V D Satheesan, said, “The parallel agitation is not suitable for a Communist organisation. We will not allow the CITU to spoil the (ASHA workers’) protest. Their stir is genuine and hence we will support it. Has CPI(M) forgotten its past agitations. Why is the party scoffing at the ASHA workers’ agitation?’’

The Congress has announced a series of agitational programmes across the state in support of the ASHA workers’ demands.