ASHA workers

Why in news?

• Accredited Social Health Activists, or ASHA workers, were named among the recipients of the World Health Organization’s Global Health Leaders Awards recently.

Who are ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers?

• ASHA workers are volunteers from within the community who are trained to provide information and aid people in accessing benefits of various healthcare schemes of the government.
• They act as a bridge connecting marginalised communities with facilities such as primary health centres, sub-centres and district hospitals.
• The role of these community health volunteers under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was first established in 2005.

Eligibility:

• They must have good communication and leadership skills; should be literate with formal education up to Class 8, as per the programme guidelines.
• ASHA must primarily be a woman resident of the village married/ widowed/ divorced, preferably in the age group of 25 to 45 years.

Presence of ASHA workers in the country:

• There are around 10.4 lakh ASHA workers across the country.
• The largest workforces of ASHA workers are in states with high populations – Uttar Pradesh (1.63 lakh), Bihar (89,437), and Madhya Pradesh (77,531).
• Goa is the only state with no such workers.
• There is one ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) for every village with a population of 1000. The States have been given the flexibility to relax the population norms as well as the educational qualifications on a case to case basis

Roles and Functions:

• Go door-to-door in their designated areas creating awareness about basic nutrition, hygiene practices, and the health services available.
• Focus on ensuring that women undergo ante-natal check-up, maintain nutrition during pregnancy, deliver at a healthcare facility, and provide post-birth training on breast-feeding and complementary nutrition of children.
• Counsel women about contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections.
• Ensure that children get immunised.
• Provide medicines daily to TB patients under directly observed treatment of the national programme.

How much are ASHA workers paid?

• Since they are considered “volunteers”, governments are not obligated to pay them a salary. And, most states don’t.
• Their income depends on incentives under various schemes that are provided when they, for example, ensure an institutional delivery or when they get a child immunised. All this adds up to only between Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000 a month.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements regarding ‘Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)’ workers:

1. They are volunteers from within the community who are trained to provide information and aid people in accessing benefits of various healthcare schemes of the government.

2. Since ASHA workers are considered volunteers, governments are not obligated to pay them a salary and most states don’t.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer