20,000 Asha Workers Wait For Haryana Govt. To Fulfill Demands

For two days, on July 16 and 17, over 20,000 Asha workers from all parts of Haryana came together in Karnal, the assembly constituency of CM Manohar Lal Khattar, to hold a strike against low wages. The women workers’ angst can be seen from the passion with which they call out the hypocrisy of the state government, which on February 1 had agreed to their demands of wage hike but have failed to deliver even after several reminders from the Asha workers union. All India United Trade Union Centre (AIUTUC) and Center of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) organized the protest.

ASHA WORKERS’ SENTIMENTS

“Asha workers have left their homes and their young children and are struggling for the past six months and one cannot call it an insignificant fight against bureaucracy. Either the government should say that they don’t want to increase our wages and help us or they should not agree to things, issue minutes of the meetings, etc. And then not follow it. They meet us at delegations and tell us that they have put the demands in process but how long does it take to process? We have been waiting for six months but they never even tell us the reason for the delay,” said Surekha, General Secretary of Asha Workers Union of Haryana to SheThePeople.TV.

Asha Workers protest

Surekha added that just organizing the massive protest cost them 50 lakh rupees as all the Asha workers came from different parts of the state and paid from their own pockets. “We couldn’t extend that protest because we had already overspent to get what is rightfully ours."

“From today we are back to our own districts and villages and now will be sitting outside elected officials’ houses and the offices of District Magistrates. Our sisters have a lot of anger against the ruling party, some even laid on the roads, leaving their houses because they just hope for final recourse,” she added.

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PROTESTING SINCE JANUARY

The Asha workers started their protest march in January 17 this year and sat on a strike for 16 days. They took out their first demonstration from different parts of the state in Sonepat, Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Panipat where they courted arrests by the police but were released later. The protests went on till January 31. On 1 February the Asha workers’ union had a meeting with the government when both the parties came to a compromise.

The government then had agreed to increase the wages to Rs 4,000 plus an increase in incentives, which come from different government jobs like spreading immunization, pre-natal, post-natal efforts, etc. There are a total 40 such daily jobs that the government falls back on Asha workers to fulfill along with some seasonal jobs.

Asha workers have left their homes and their young children and are struggling for the past six months and one cannot call it an insignificant fight against bureaucracy. Either the government should say that they don’t want to increase our wages and help us or they should not agree to things, issue minutes of the meetings etc. And then not follow it.

NO SIGN OF IMPLEMENTATION

Asha workers say that the government did not implement their demands that it agreed on for four months. After that they sent in many reminders to the government officials to implement them but they completely ignored their requests yet again. Then the Asha workers again went on strike on June 7 and after five days of strike, the government relented and said that they have ordered implementation but it wasn't the same order that was passed in February as it added many conditions on every demand of the Asha workers, said Surekha.

“Then again on 15 June, the government called us for a meeting and agreed that the order that they passed was different from what they had agreed upon earlier. Officials including the Additional Chief Secretary, Health Minister etc. were all there and signed the minutes of the meeting. After that the ministry came forward in the media and announced that they have agreed upon our demands and many reports came out in June. Over a month has passed but one can see no sign of implementation so we had to come forward and again organize this massive protest,” she said.