E-Paper
ASHA workers to get Rs 50 lakh death cover amid Covid-19 outbreak
ASHA workers, facilitators were to go on strike on May 7 but the health department announced incentives
Accredited social health activists’ (ASHA workers’) families will receive Rs 50 lakh in case they succumb to Covid-19, announced the state health department on Friday.
They will receive Rs 10,000 in case they are infected. As part of the special incentives announced for ASHA workers, they will receive a monthly allowance of Rs 1,000 for performing their duties amid the pandemic and Rs 1,500 for conducting door-to door survey.
The decision comes after four ASHA workers were found infected in Moga in the last week of April and their union threatened to go on strike.
The order pertaining to additional incentives has been sent to all civil surgeons.
The monthly incentives will be paid to them from the month of January to June while the incentive for door-to-door survey will be given to them from April to June.
Similarly, ASHA facilitators will get Rs 5,000 per month for doing their duties and Rs 1,500 per month for conducting door-to-door survey.
FREE TREATMENT, CHECKUPS
The order says ASHA workers’ and facilitators’ medical examinations will be conducted free of cost and they will also be treated for free at government hospitals.
National Health Mission director Dr Parvinder Sidhu said the decision had been taken to appreciate the work done by ASHA workers and facilitators during the Covid -19 crisis.
ASHA Workers and Facilitators’ Union state president Pramjeet Kaur Maan said, “We had decided to go on strike on May 7. After we announced the strike, the department approached us and assured us that our demands will be considered. Now, they have given us incentives. We welcomed the department’s decision but this is a half win for us.”
