BENGALURU, 13 FEB

Hundreds of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers in State descended upon Bengaluru's Freedom Park on Tuesday, demanding the delinking of the Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) web portal from the payroll process and a fixed monthly honorarium of Rs 15,000.

Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, who came to the protest site, assured ASHA workers that they will get Rs 7,000 (existing Rs 5,000 in honorarium and Rs 2,000 for non-Mother and Child Tracking System services) every month directly. The minister also said the issues in the portal will be fixed within six months and if not, they will get a team Incentive of Rs 1,000 per month. But the workers said they will continue the protest on Wednesday also.

The RCH portal serves as the central data entry system for ASHA workers, where they upload details of their services. Based on this data, the Union government releases their monthly incentives. However, persistent technical issues with the portal have led to "absolute non-payment and irregular deposition" of wages, according to the All-India United Trade Union Centre. The ASHA workers demanded immediate solutions to issues plaguing the portal and demanded a fixed monthly wage, eliminating the need for data entry.

Savithri Devi, an ASHA worker from Bengaluru, told Salar News “We have to struggle to make ends meet in our workplace, and a mere Rs 5,000 per month is not enough for that. We need more than that to survive in this City.”

Beyond technical woes, ASHA workers express concerns about their workload. They juggle pre-maternity and post-natal responsibilities while being deployed in government programmes, including elections and health initiatives. Despite carrying this significant burden, their monthly wages remain inconsistent and depend on performance incentives.

Sharadamma. P, another ASHA worker, said “I am not that well educated but still I do my data entry job without anyone’s help at the workplace. The payment that I receive does not match the workload that I have to manage. We will not stop until the government heeds to our outcries.”