Shillong : Meghalaya Health and Family Welfare minister, Ampareen Lyngdoh has once again invited Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) for discussion following their ongoing ‘rest at home’ agitation and protest rally demanding hike of the fixed incentive being paid to them.
Addressing reporters on Wednesday, Lyngdoh explained how ASHAs were engaged as health educators and health promoters in the community and recieved their incentives according to their work.
Stating that it was wrong for anyone to say that only the Central government is involved in giving incentives to ASHAs, Lyngdoh said that the state government is also involved by releasing funds for the benefits of these health activists.
She informed that a fixed monthly incentives of Rs 2000 per ASHA was released by the state government at Rs 16.32 crore during 2021-2022 and Rs 16.98 crore during 2022-2023.
She said that the state government had also released a backlog payment of Rs 53 crore during 2021-2022.
The incentives released under the National Health Mission (NHM) were Rs 21.96 crore during 2021-2022 and Rs 22.68 crore during 2022-2023.
Lyngdoh said that ASHAs are not salaried employees but they work as volunteers and got the incentives according to the work they do.
She said that going by the list of ASHAs and the remuneration they recieved, some of them have really work hard and received more than Rs 82,000 for a period of five or six months, besides a fixed monthly incentive of Rs 2000.
Thanking those ASHAs who are continuing with their work in their respective places, the Minister urged the agitating health activists to come for a discussion once again to have a better understanding between the state government and the ASHAs.
She informed that she has instructed officers of the health department to issue a circular or notification to specify the works assigned to the ASHAs, because there is also one ANM and mid-level health provider (MHLP) who should do their work along with the ASHAs.
“Our ASHAs are working hard despite a voluntary work and why should they do all the works when there is also an ANM to supervise and MLHP in their respective areas. ASHAs who work hard get more incentives and many of them got more than Rs 30 thousand or Rs 50 thousand rupees and even more than Rs 82 thousand,” the Minister said.
As far as the demand of ASHAs that they should be covered with health insurance under the MHIS, Lyngdoh said that this demand is being considered as it concerns the health of ASHAs, and a policy will be also in place on the selection of ASHAs.
Meghalaya has 6,811 ASHAs in rural areas and 265 of them in urban areas.
