Dispelling rumours, collecting feedback keep 1.60 lakh Asha workers busy

While we know of doctors and cops as frontline Covid-19 warriors, there is another army of healthcare staff which is helping the government fight the war against the virus in an unsung way.

Roped in to gather all kinds of feedback, a strong team of 1.60 lakh Asha (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers, positioned across the state, has literally become the eyes and ears of the government in the fight against the Covid-19.

“Recently we were asked to gather details of Imams of masjids so that they could be asked to appeal to people to offer prayers at home during Ramadan,” said Kiran Yadav, an Asha worker posted in BKT block.

“We move out, get exposed to the risk, collect information and forward it to the government through proper channel,” she said while ruing the little remuneration she gets in return.

“It comes out to be a maximum of Rs 73 a day, if we complete the entire set of task assigned to us. Will the work come again depends on many things,” she said.

They are contract workers employed by the health department under national health mission and paid incentives based on the number of cases – mostly institutional deliveries – that they take care of.

Usually, on one delivery, a worker gets Rs 650. If the worker completes all the tasks she is paid Rs 2200 per month.

Similar is the story of Kusum Singh posted in Atesua village of Lucknow.

“I finish my house chores before 6 am to leave for field to sensitize people about COVID-19. We brave rude behavior of villagers who believe in rumours more than the facts and are very stubborn most of the times,” she said.

During the lockdown, since other vaccination has been stopped the Asha workers are left with the task of institutional deliveries and weighing children for which they would be paid not more than Rs 1000 a month.

Still, they are busy in sensitizing people about COVID-19 and checking whether people are quarantined properly or not.

Where this women work force comes in handy is in collecting feedback and doing ground-level work.

Renu, who is a ‘Sangini’ and supervises work of around 26 Asha workers covering around more than two dozen hamlets with a total population of around 25, 000, said, “We have been visiting door to door, listen to their worries, gathering feedback, face different issues and report it to higher authorities.”

“We face different kinds of people of strong beliefs. We are the closest part of the state machinery but powerless. Some people ridicule us, some try to demean us,” she added.

A few days ago Kusum Singh, Asha worker of Atesua village was confronted by a middle-aged woman when asked to cover the face. “Jab hamne koi paap nhin kiya to mooh kyun chhupaaye. (When I have not committed any sin, why should I cover my face),” She told Asha worker and asked her to leave the house.

“Some people will mock us all the time. They call us corona warriors but in the sense of making fun of us. People ridiculed when we wrote these slogans,” said Singh.

Belonging to a marginal farmer’s family, another Asha worker, Manju Devi of Chaturpur village of Lucknow said, “When we reach home, we have nothing in hand but a sense of satisfaction that we did our best. But when I see people around, I feel we all deserve better remunerations.”

Some of them have adopted innovative ways to reach out to the people by writing slogans on walls, beating drums so that the message to stay safe from COVID19 reach out to maximum people.