By The Hindu Bureau
Copyright thehindu
Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), under the banner of the Kerala ASHA Health Workers’ Association (KAHWA), will march to the Chief Minister’s official residence, Cliff House, in Thiruvananthapuram on October 22 in protest against the Chief Minister’s “total neglect and disregard” for the agitation by the women workers and his refusal to settle ASHAs’ strike which has completed nearly eight months.
In a statement here on Tuesday (September 23, 2025), the KAHWA said that the ASHAs have been on a day-and-night agitation in front of the Secretariat demanding fair wages and improved service conditions, something that the civil society had wholeheartedly validated as fair. The main demands of ASHAs were a hike in the honorarium and retirement benefits.
The statement said that ASHAs continued to draw a daily wage of ₹233 and that the assurances made by the Ministers and the Chief Minister that the State will hike the honorarium if the Union government hikes incentives turned out to be a farce.
Even after the Centre announced hikes in incentives as well as retirement benefits, the State refused to budge and the ASHAs were asked to wait for the report and recommendations of the committee set up by the government to study the pay and service conditions of ASHAs.
It was on the 53rd day of the strike, following a round of discussions with the Health Minister that a decision was taken to set up the said committee. It took another month for the government order announcing the setting up of the committee. Though the Labour Minister said that the report will be out in a month, the committee took over three months to submit the report.
Report not released
Though it has been a month since the committee submitted the report, the government has not even bothered to release the report and place the recommendations of the committee before the public.
The KAHWA had pointed out that a committee was not required for the government to hike the honorarium or announce retirement benefits for ASHAs but that a committee may be set up to study other issues related to the service conditions of ASHAs. Though the government did not agree with this, the KAHWA had cooperated with the committee.
Charter of demands
The KAHWA participated in all the hearings of the committee and also submitted a memorandum with a 27-point charter of demands. Not just KAHWA, all other organisations of ASHAs with political affiliations had participated in the hearings and raised similar demands, a clear indication of the legitimacy of the demands.
The strike by ASHAs has crossed 227 days and despite the appeals made by various organisations and individuals to the Chief Minister, asking him to settle the strike, Pinarayi Vijayan has chosen to turn a deaf ear to all the pleas
The fact that a group of women have been living on the street, braving the heat and dust and the sun and the rain for the past eight months, raising legitimate demands, does not seem to bother the Chief Minister at all, KAHWA said.
It pointed out that the government has the responsibility and the obligation to give copies of the committee report to all unions and to place the recommendations of the committee before the public. The Chief Minister does not seem to have any problem spending crores of public money on unnecessary luxuries or on people of his choice. Yet he does not think that ASHAs who work at the grassroots deserve even the minimum wages
ASHAs will march to Cliff House on October 22, demanding an enhanced honorarium, retirement benefits and urging the government to make the committee report public, it said.
