Community Health Officers protest for workload reduction and incentives

Community Health Officers (CHOs) staged a objection astatine Dharna Chowk successful Vijayawada connected Monday (March 23, 2026), demanding a simplification successful their workload and the continuation of incentives.

The CHOs, moving successful 10,038 Ayushman Aarogya Mandirs (Village Health Clinics) successful Andhra Pradesh, are entitled to person ₹25,000 arsenic wage and depending connected the performance, anyplace betwixt ₹7,500 and ₹15,000 is paid arsenic incentives. Every VHC has a CHO, an ASHA and an ANM.

“While earlier, we utilized to person the wage and the incentives for moving from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., recently, the authorities introduced Face Recognition System (FRS) astatine 8 p.m., and made outgo of incentives conditional connected attendance till 8 p.m.,” said P. Prem Kumar, moving astatine Kolaganivaripalem VHC successful Bapatla district.

“Instead of expanding our salaries for putting successful much hours, we are being stripped disconnected immoderate we utilized to person earlier,” helium said, adding that much than 4,000 CHOs did not person incentives successful December and January.

A pistillate CHO, connected the information of anonymity, pointed retired that owed to deficiency of a Standard Operating Procedure (SoP), determination is nary due organisation of enactment betwixt ASHAs, ANMs, and CHOs. “There is simply a batch of disorder regarding who should bash what, and eventually, the enactment falls connected the shoulders of the CHOs,” she pointed out.

The Community Health Officers besides person to marque integer entries of patients. The people is to marque 20 entries per day. “It takes america 30 minutes to marque 1 physics wellness record. On apical of that, we besides person tract enactment and indispensable be to outpatients,” Mr. Prem Kumar said.

In May 2025, the CHOs staged a monolithic protestation for astir a period demanding removal of FRS system, outgo of arrears and hold of different benefits. The onslaught was called disconnected aft the authorities promised to resoluteness their issues. But the committedness remains unfulfilled till date, the CHOs said.