No Rights for Women Frontline Workers?

The first in a two-part series on the pivotal role millions of women frontline workers play in ensuring rural women get access to quality maternal health services. Tanya Dikshit, engaged with PRIA’s maternal health project in Rajasthan, believes the recent hike in the honorarium for anganwadi and ASHA workers is mere tokenism in the light of their struggle to be recognised as workers with rights.

  ‘Effective increase in honorarium will not be more than Rs. 500-600 (contributed by the Centre), as rest 40% would be contributed by the State.’ ‘What about their other demands? They have been struggling for years.’ These were some of the reactions I heard in a meeting with officials from National Health Mission (NHM) and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), following the announcement of increase in honorarium for anganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) made by Prime Minister Modi on 12 September. In his interaction with these grassroots workers over video conference, he hailed their role as “change agents”.  The Union cabinet has also approved this increase, to become effective from October. There are nearly 2.5 million anganwadi workers and over a million ASHA workers across the country, collectively called Frontline Workers (FLWs). On the face of it, this pay hike, offered as a “Diwali gift”, appears to be a long overdue recognition of their efforts as it promises a 50-60% increase in remuneration. However, looked at in the context of old protests and demands by FLWs, it is nothing but a half-hearted attempt at assuaging their struggles for the time being. Anganwadi workers, organised under the All India Federation of Anganwadi Workers and Helpers (AIFAWH- affiliated to CITU) and ASHA workers, under the joint platform of the central trade unions, have been pressing for Rs 18,000 as minimum wage with variable Dearness Allowance; be provided social security benefits such as pension, gratuity and maternity benefits; and, most importantly, that they be recognized as “regular workers” instead of being treated as voluntary workers being paid an honorarium. This has been endorsed in the recommendations of both the 45^th and 46^th Indian Labour Conference (ILC) held in 2013 and 2015 respectively. In the years after the ILC conferences, multiple protests have been organized for implementation of these recommendations. If measured against these demands being raised for over 5 years, the quantum of change that is to be introduced from October seems spiritless. Do we really expect this to be a morale booster when the demands for regularization of employment and extension of benefits given to other government functionaries seems a dream that will not materialize? Will this hike truly enhance motivation when FLWs are unable to retrieve their payment due to mismanagement at the level of disbursement of incentive and honorarium, inability to link their bank accounts to Aadhar and inaccessibility to banking services? [caption id="attachment_3328" align="alignright" width="300"] Anganwadi centre in Govindgarh[/caption] FLWs are a very crucial link between communities and public health services guaranteed by government schemes. For the past 18 months, PRIA has been working closely with FLWs under its Apna Swasthya Apni Pehel initiative to improve maternal health indicators and ensure all pregnant and lactating mothers are covered as beneficiaries under government schemes in Govingarh block (Jaipur district) and Banswara block (Banswara district). These FLWs have emerged as the most pivotal stakeholders in ensuring accountability of local governance institutions (panchayats). They are the link between community women and their panchayats in raising demand for effective public health services. [caption id="attachment_3329" align="alignright" width="300"] Ante-natal check-up by ANM in Banswara[/caption] For FLWs, acting as this link is not an easy task. One would imagine that owing to their “location” as skilled and literate woman and as a peer, local women would listen to them and follow their health related advice without hesitation. However, in rural India, where women’s access to reproductive rights and right to body autonomy is still not discussed, let alone exercised, interventions by FLWs are both challenging and exhausting as it involves not only acting as the interface between available services and beneficiaries but also as a reformer, who changes social attitudes and fights both with and for women to ensure that they have access to basic reproductive rights. ASHA and anganwadi workers play multiple roles; they ensure all women in their communities get access to maternal health services – and yet they do not have access themselves to maternity benefits as part of their jobs, because they are not recognised as workers. We should be concerned about the reactions quoted at the beginning of this post; they express the frustration of millions of FLWs. It is high time that both the Central and State governments take progressive decisions that will ensure the rights of millions of India’s women – as workers.  

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