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NHM workers protesting outside Jammu govt hospital clash with police
According to official reports, government has terminated over 1,500 NHM contractual workers from services in Jammu
Hundreds of contractual employees engaged by the National Health Mission (NHM) and who worked as Covid warriors during peak pandemic were, on Thursday, dragged and manhandled by a strong posse of police force outside Government Medical College and Hospital here.
The NHM workers were staging anti-government protests against abrupt termination of their services when the police including women constables used force and dragged them into police vehicles and then resorted to lathicharge.
According to official reports, the government has terminated over 1,500 such employees from services.
Over 1,500 NHM contractual employees, mostly women, were assembled at the gate of GMCH here to protest against the termination of their services. They raised anti-government slogans and blocked the road for hours to press for their demands of regularisation.
As the blockade caused heavy traffic jams, police force came into action and tried to forcibly remove the blockade. However, the protesters clashed with them. Later, they were removed from the road.
‘We were promised regularisation’
“We risked our lives. There were no attendants with Covid patients ... We even picked up dead bodies with our bare hands. What did they do? They terminated us and dumped us,” said one of the protesting female NHM workers.
“The government is exercising a ‘use and throw’ policy with us and we condemn it,” said one Sunita Devi, an NHM employee, who was one of the lead protesters. She said they had joined service at GMCH at the peak of the first wave of Covid-19 last year when no one wanted to come out of their homes.
“We were promised that if we served in the best way, we will be regularised in the services. But instead of regularisation, they threw us out after using us during the worst Covid period,” she said.
