ASHA workers to end protest outside Kerala secretariat; will move agitation to districts

Thiruvananthapuram | A group of ASHA workers who were holding a day-night protest outside the Kerala secretariat here for 265 days, demanding to hike their honorarium to Rs 21,000 and Rs 5 lakh as post-retirement benefits, on Friday announced the end of their current mode of agitation.

The Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association (KAHWA), which has been leading the protest, said that their agitation will now move to the grassroots level in the districts.

KAHWA state general secretary M A Bindu said that through their various forms of agitation, including a hunger strike by some of their members for a few months and shaving of their heads by some others, they have made several gains, and now it was time to move on to a different mode of protest.

She said that due to their agitation, the central government increased their fixed incentive to Rs 1,500 and decided to provide Rs 50,000 to ASHA workers who completed 10 years of service and the state government increased their honorarium by Rs 1,000.

Bindu said that the state government, which had been "stubbornly" refusing to hike the honorarium, was recently forced to increase it and also announce that all the arrears would be cleared.