Hundreds of representatives of social health activists and mid day meal workers gathered on February 19, 2009 at a convention in Delhi to discuss their problems and voice their concerns. The participants came from different states of India.

Problems of accredited social health activists (ASHA)

These women work under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) of the government. They are meant to be trained community health activists, a link between the health centres and the villagers. In general each such activist is selected to serve a population of about a 1000, while the number could be less in mountainous or desert regions. They have a wide range of jobs, including creating awareness about sanitation, hygiene, immunisation, nutrition, primary health care for minor ailments, as well as escorting patients to medical centres. They have to inform the primary health centre/sub centre about births and deaths in their village. These women are supposed to work in coordination with the Anganwadi workers, and are supposed to be provided regular training to upgrade their skills.

The central problem these women are facing is that they are supposed to do all this work as “social workers”. They should not expect wages, but should be satisfied with “incentives”.There are six lakh such women workers working in this program. The Union government wants to super exploit them and not even recognise them as workers who must be paid wages to ensure their livelihood. Only recently, the government has announced a monthly payment of Rs 500, which is yet to be implemented.

These women health workers are demanding regularisation as village level health workers. They are demanding regular wages, social security benefits, rest rooms in all Primary Health Centres, and the establishment of the National Rural Health Mission as a permanent programme.

Mid Day meal workers

Twenty lakh mid-day meal workers cook and serve meals to over 12 crore children in schools under the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education. This scheme, launched in 1995, now covers 9.5 lakhs schools in the entire country.

Those engaged in cooking food under the scheme receive a remuneration ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 650 per month in the different states. They work for at least 5 hours a day. They are forced to do other jobs in the schools in order to ensure they remain under the scheme.

In recent years, the government has been privatising the cooking of mid-day meals. It is willing to pay private parties including NGOs for this activity, but not employ and pay women from the community for the same work.

The mid-day meal workers are opposing the privatisation of mid-day meal scheme. They are demanding that they be recognised as school employees, whose jobs should be protected and for whom minimum wages should be ensured. They are also demanding social security benefits and proper infrastructure for cooking in all schools.

The struggle of the women workers in the social sector is a just struggle.