lockdown

ASHA workers

After the initial protests, masks are being given but just one or two for a week. But the higher-ups are allocating duties in areas which are 5-km far from our house without providing any transport facility. Even food is not arranged –Vaishnavi, an ASHA worker

Without protective gear, they are being told to conduct surveys in far-flung areasTheappears to be a dealing a particularly nasty blow to, who are tasked with the responsibility of surveying areas affected by Covid-19 across the state. With no food, transport and safety facilities, the poorly-paid community health workers, whose monthly salary is less than Rs 7,000, are having the worst of times.Soon after the pandemic struck the state, the workers were asked to visit about 25 houses a day in the locality to find out whether any of the residents returned from a foreign countries and take note of the symptoms and illness. Later, a separate team was formed only to visit the houses of foreign returnees.There are over 42,000 ASHA workers in Karnataka, including about 2,500 in Bengaluru.Many health workers, however, said that the health department has not provided them with adequate number of masks, sanitisers and gloves. Pictures also show some ASHA workers surveying houses by tying kerchiefs around their faces. “After the initial protests, masks are being given but just one or two for a week. But the higher-ups are allocating duties in areas which are 5km from our house without providing any transport facility. Even food is not arranged,” said Vaishnavi, an ASHA worker.Another community health worker, Nagalakshmi, said she stopped attending work after she was allotted the project in another area. “It’s not possible to travel. I am happy to go to areas which are familiar to me. I had a target to cover 2,000 houses in my area. Even if they make it to 10,000 houses, I will do it as long as it’s in my locality,” she said.Last Wednesday, the Health Department issued a circular stating that the ASHA workers should not be deployed in different areas that they have been functioning from and has made it mandatory to wear a mask.Many ASHA workers, however, said that the department is asking them to keep a distance and remain outside the house while speaking to people during the survey instead of giving them masks, sanitizers and gloves.“The job of these ASHA workers, by its nature, entails high risk. They are putting their bodies on the line, both in terms of the outbreak and also violence and intolerance of many stressed and frustrated citizens in lockdown. We as a society, are taking advantage of the helplessness of these women by thrusting them to the frontlines of this new and terrifying battlefield, ill-trained, unprotected and uncompensated,” said Nirmala Gowda, trustee of Bangalore Environment Trust. The trust has petitioned various departments and ministers in the government with several demands.Some of them include providing them with adequate protective gear, fixing the supply chain of protective gear and address shortfall, paying them for the risky services provided, putting the insurance details in the public realm and workers being given a hotline number, for use in situations where their personal safety is compromised.