The World Health Organization has named the country’s 10.4 lakh ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers ‘Global Health Leaders’ for their work in linking the public to government health programmes.
While the Prime Minister and the Health Minister have sent words of congratulations, the women health volunteers are still fighting for better pay, regular positions, and even health insurance.
Thousands of ASHAs from throughout the country took to the streets in September last year to fight for their demands, despite occasional demonstrations in certain areas.
ASHA workers are community volunteers who have been trained to offer information and assist individuals in obtaining benefits from the government’s different healthcare programmes. They provide as a link between marginalised populations and resources like primary health centres, sub-centers, and district hospitals.
The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) created the function of these community health volunteers in 2005.
ASHAs are largely community-based married, widowed, or divorced women between the ages of 25 and 45. They must be literate, with formal education up to Class 8, and have strong communication and leadership abilities, according to the programme requirements.
Workers from ASHA travel door to door in their assigned regions to raise awareness about basic nutrition, cleanliness, and health services. They primarily focus on ensuring that women receive ante-natal care, maintain nutrition during pregnancy, give birth in a medical institution, and receive post-partum instruction on breast-feeding and supplementary nutrition for their children. They also offer advice on contraception and sexually transmitted illnesses to women.
ASHA personnel are also responsible for assuring and persuading youngsters to receive vaccinations. ASHA workers deliver daily medications to TB patients under the national program’s direct observation therapy, in addition to mother and child care. During the season, they are also responsible for checking for illnesses such as malaria. They also give essential medications and therapies, including as oral rehydration solution, chloroquine for malaria, iron folic acid tablets to combat anaemia, and contraceptive pills, to those within their control.
Most states used the ASHA network for screening persons in containment zones, having them tested, and transporting them to quarantine centres or assisting with home quarantine.
They were also responsible with persuading individuals to get their vaccinations and collecting statistics on how many people had yet to get vaccinated for Covid-19, which began in January of last year.
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