Shashi Yadav

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi was delivering an election speech in Madhubani, Bihar on April 24 (just two days after a terrorist attack on tourists in Pahalgam, Kashmir, when the entire nation was in mourning) and shedding crocodile tears, ASHA workers and facilitators in the state were expressing their anger on the streets of Bihar. ASHA workers in the state have been struggling for the past six months to receive their rightful remuneration.

Thousands of scheme workers, including ASHA, anganwadi, mid-day meal, mamta, courier and other scheme workers, responded to the national call for rural bandh and sectoral strike on February 16th, 2024.

The Bihar Rajya ASHA Karyakarta Sangh (affiliated to AICCTU and Maha sangh (Gope Gut) and ASHA Sangharsh Samiti (affiliated to CITU), jointly under the banner of ASHA Samyukt Sangharsh Manch, have declared indefinite strike of ASHA workers in Bihar from 17^th February 2022.

Almost one crore scheme workers all over the country shoulder the burden of implementing several important public schemes of the central government on health and education. They include ASHA workers (working under National Rural Health Mission program), Anganvadi workers (working under ICDS program) and MDM workers (working under Mid Day Meal scheme for school children). Almost 95% of the scheme workers in the country are women. These scheme workers are the backbone in ensuring basic health and nutrition to vast majority of the country’s population.