Over a year into the pandemic, frontline health workers – Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Community Health Volunteers (CHVs) and Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) – have been the backbone of Mumbai’s fight against Covid-19.
Even today, they are on-field each day for contact tracing, screening Covid-19 patients, ensuring that the High Risk and Low Risk contacts are quarantined and following up with them to check for symptoms, oxygen levels and temperature, regularly until they recover.
Firstpost tracked the work of ASHAs, CHV and ANM from the Shanti Nagar Health Post in Mumbai’s H-East ward, to understand the changes in their work since the first wave of the pandemic and the challenges they are facing.
While insufficient salary is a common problem at all levels of the team, urban ASHA workers have been have been working for the lowest amount of honorarium that is Rs 1650, by Centre and State each under the National Health Mission.
Insufficient honorarium as compared to the cost of living, pending payments, added responsibilities and no fixed employment are the issues that they have been facing even before but are intensified during the pandemic.
In this video, the health workers talk about their work and employment conditions.
Click on the link in bio to read more about urban ASHAs.
Report by Sarasvati Nagesh
