Contractual staff under NHM to go on indefinite strike from Aug 19

The strike has been called by a coalition of over 17 NHM staff organisations, representing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and other health workers serving in public healthcare facilities.

PUNE: With more than 42,000 contractual staff under the National Health Mission (NHM) to go on an indefinite strike from August 19 over long pending demands, healthcare services across Maharashtra are likely to be severely disrupted.

Thane, India - July -17, 2025:Maharashtra State Nurses Association is holding a strike across Maharashtra to demand their demands. Their main demands are to stop the recruitment of contract basses nurses. Increase the salary of trainee nurses., Recruit new posts., For these and other demands, nurses in Maharashtra are on an indefinite strike Nurses teachers and trainee nurses are seen protesting outside Thane Civil Hospital Nursing College. ,in Thane,in Mumbai, India, on, Thursday, July -17, 2025. ( Praful Gangurde / HT Photo ) (praful Gangurde)

The strike has been called by a coalition of over 17 NHM staff organisations, representing doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians and other health workers serving in public healthcare facilities. In Pune alone, around 2,700 NHM staff from Pune rural, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) will join the protest at the Pune Zilla Parishad (ZP) office.

Among the staff’s demands are immediate implementation of the government resolution (GR) issued on March 14, 2024 which mandates absorption of contractual NHM employees into regular service; a hike in honorarium, payment of loyalty bonus, EPF, health insurance, and a transparent transfer policy.

“Even after 15 months, the GR has not been implemented,” said Harshal Ranavre, state coordinator for the NHM contractual staff. The staff organisations pointed out that health minister Prakash Abitkar, during meetings with their delegation on July 8 and 10, had assured them of action on these matters but the assurances remain unfulfilled. The NHM staff has written to the minister, urging that their long pending demands be fulfilled.

Meanwhile, union leaders have warned that the indefinite strike will paralyse healthcare services such as outpatient care, maternal and child health programmes, immunisation drives and laboratory testing in public hospitals and rural health centres across the state.

As part of a damage control exercise, the public health department on Monday issued a letter to the NHM staff, calling for a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the long pending demand for absorption of contractual NHM staff into regular service. This meeting will be chaired by secretary 1 of the public health department at Mantralaya, Mumbai, along with senior officials from the Health Services Directorate and NHM Mission Directorate, and representatives of the NHM Integration Committee expected to attend.

On his part, Dr Nagnath Yempalle, Pune district civil surgeon, said, “We have made adequate arrangements and have ample staff to make sure no healthcare services are affected during the strike. We have taken the help of Dr D Y Patil Medical College that will provide us with staff for the dialysis centre. We will make sure no services are affected.”