Shillong, Nov 15: Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh on Wednesday ruled out providing salary to the ASHA workers by saying that they are volunteers avd their remuneration is as per their work.
Speaking to reporters, Ampareen pointed out that ASHAs do get remuneration based on their performance.
Citing a case, she said an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) worker from Kyrdem public health centre (PHC) has received over Rs 82,000 as performance incentives and regular honorarium during the past six months.
She said remuneration is being provided to the ASHA workers in over 7,000 villages across Meghalaya.
Many ASHA workers were drawing monetary incentives ranging from Rs 23,000 to Rs 82,000 during the last six months from April 1 to September 30 based on bank payment credit date.
“I went through the remunerations of these receipts of payments that ASHAs have got in certain blocks…I am pleasantly surprised to see that these volunteers have been given adequate monetary remuneration,” Lyngdoh told reporters after a meeting with officials of the health department.
Ampareen said engagement with ASHAs was very clear from day one and it was of a voluntary nature.
She said there was no promise of any salary or no promise of anything beyond the activities that ASHAs are engaged with.
The ASHA workers under the banner Meghalaya ASHA Workers’ Union (MASHAWU) have been staging indefinite strike since November 7 in protest against government’s apathy towards their demands which include enhancing the honorarium from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000.
The minister said there is a misconception that the state government has done nothing for the ASHAs.
She added:“My duty is to inform the public that is not true. Why would we do that?”
She said the government during 2021-2022 had spent Rs 91.2 crore for the monthly incentives of ASHAs.
The government had shelled out Rs 16.32 crore for the fixed monthly incentive of ASHAs and cleared the backlog of Rs 53 crore besides Rs 21.96 crore was the incentives under NHM.
“In 2022-23, the backlog is nil. We are still investing Rs 16.98 crore for monthly incentives of Rs 2000 for ASHAs and incentives under NHM we have spent Rs 22.68 crore for ASHA alone,” she said.
She appealed to the ASHA workers to call off their agitations and come to the negotiating table.
“Asking for your rights is one thing but a disregard for your duties is something else. Do not push us, we want to continue to work with you. We are grateful for the work you do. If you need another dialogue with your minister, I am not a minister by default, it is the people who brought me to this office and it is my duty to hear you out”, she said.
She added, “If you want to come and talk, my doors are open. I am voted to this office by people, I am a people person I will meet you but don’t come with expectations that are beyond my capacity.”
“These (ASHAs) are volunteers who come with their own free will. The more days you stay away from your responsibilities as health facilitators in your village, the more displaced your village will be because you have taken up the responsibility, I don’t want to get to a stage where I will have to tell the PHCs please do something about and get somebody new because it is not done.We respect them. Respect has to be mutual. Please no negative feelings here”, she said.
She asserted that service to humanity is service to God.
Ampareen said, “If there happens to be a high risk pregnant mother in any village and if the ASHAs are going to turn their eyes away from that patient who needs their attention I fear the worst for the citizens of the state of Meghalaya.”
The minister thanked the many ASHAs who are continuing working despite the strike and said, “Because they see the realness of the threats to the lives of individuals in villages, they continue to attend to their duties.”
The minister acknowledged that Meghalaya is doing quite well in institutional delivery and immunization, all thanks to the ASHAs.
“They (ASHAs) are taking critical health care beyond remunerations but that is the system. The Government of Meghalaya is following a system which has been conceptualised with their consent. No ASHA is forced to come to work, it is a voluntary work,” she added
