Shillong, Nov 16: With the indefinite strike by Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers of Meghalaya entering the 10th day on Thursday, the government has refused to budge from its stance of not enhancing the honorarium of the ‘volunteer’ community health workers. The Health Minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh, and higher officials from the Health Department have maintained that the volunteers are paid sufficiently and many actually make a lot more through ‘performance incentives’ for their hard work.

The Health Minister has also been categorical that the demand for enhancement of their honorarium does not hold much weight since the work of ASHA has always been a voluntary one and there has never been any promise of any salary or of anything beyond the activities that ASHAs is engaged with.

The ASHA workers under the banner of Meghalaya ASHA Workers’ Union (MASHAWU) have been on an indefinite strike since November 7, 2023, as a mark of protest against the government’s apathy towards their demands which includes enhancing of monthly honorarium from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000.

So, how is the Meghalaya government really spending on the ASHAs?

The Health Minister recently informed that an ASHA worker from Kyrdem Public Health Centre (PHC) has received over Rs 82,000 as performance incentives and regular honorarium during the past six months. This makes an average of Rs. 13,666.

At present, the State has a total of 7,076 ASHA workers, with 6,811 ASHAs in rural areas and 265 in the urban areas.
Government has fixed Rs 16.98 crore for monthly incentives of Rs 2000 for ASHAs.

According to the official data, the majority of the ASHA workers were drawing monetary incentives ranging from 23,000 to 82,000 during the six months’ period from April 1 to September 30, 2023 based on bank payment credit date.

In 2021-2022, the government had spent Rs 91.2 crore for the monthly incentives of ASHAs. Of this, the government had shelled out Rs 16.32 crore for the fixed monthly incentive of ASHAs and cleared the backlog of Rs 53 crore besides Rs 21.96 crore was the incentives under NHM.

In 2022-23, besides the Rs 16.98 crore earmarked for monthly incentives of Rs 2000, the government has already spent Rs 22.68 crore from NHM; totalling Rs 40.5 crore.

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