4 months ago
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Hundreds of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) laid siege to the office of the West Bengal Health Department astatine Swasthya Bhavan successful Kolkata connected Wednesday (January 7, 2026), demanding amended wage and security benefits aft a casework protestation for the past 15 days.
A question of pinkish and purple — protesting ASHA workers successful azygous — took implicit Salt Lake Sector V from Wednesday (January 7) morning, and coalesced extracurricular Swasthya Bhavan arsenic the time progressed. They continued their agitation implicit 8 main demands, including raising the monthly honorarium from ₹5,250 to ₹15,000 and for a compensation of ₹5 lakhs successful lawsuit of decease connected duty.
Protestors sloganeered, blocked roads and traffic, and breached barricades trying to participate Swasthya Bhavan, but failed aft the constabulary locked the main gross to halt them from entering. They continued their protestation successful the signifier of a sit-in agitation extracurricular Swasthya Bhavan and demanded a squad of representatives beryllium allowed to conscionable Health section officials to sermon their demands.
“We privation our monthly honorarium to beryllium accrued to Rs 15,000, we privation maternity leave, compensation successful lawsuit of decease connected duty, we privation to beryllium recognised arsenic imperishable authorities employees and not volunteers. We besides privation the mobile telephone costs for integer information introduction enactment to beryllium covered, and the disbursal of pending allowances promised earlier,” a protesting ASHA idiosyncratic said.
She added that their tasks impact giving a wide scope of services for maternity and kid care, including rushing to people’s homes astatine precise precocious hours successful lawsuit of immoderate aesculapian emergency. “Despite helping truthful galore large women and caller mothers, we bash not person the payment of maternity permission ourselves,” she said.
ASHA workers person boycotted enactment for implicit 2 weeks arsenic portion of their ongoing agitation, and person claimed to person submitted aggregate deputations to the Health section with their demands.
According to information provided by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, determination are astir 70,468 ASHA workers successful West Bengal arsenic of September 2024.
Their duties see informing communities connected nutrition, basal sanitation, and hygienic practices, and counselling women connected commencement preparedness, harmless delivery, breast-feeding, immunisation, contraception and prevention of communal infections including sexually transmitted infections, and caring for young children.
