Dear Chief Minister,

In the democracy of our dreams, you, I and Asha workers are equal. But in this world, a (yet to be identified) person shouted at Asha workers from the first floor of the health minister’s official residence and they had to return without meeting the minister. A huge reason why the health department was praised by the world was the labour of these women. The minister’s demeanour towards them makes me wonder if she has forgotten this.

I am an artist living in Thiruvananthapuram. I have temporarily taken a break from intense illustration works because of ill health. But fortunately for me, I can afford to take time to heal, being a middle class person. Unlike an Asha worker. Most Asha workers come from lower middle class households. They don’t have the privilege to voluntarily leave the job. So the excuse that they are voluntary healthcare workers disrespects their labour.

News reports over the past few years show that their work burden has increased. (For example: https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/asha-workers-to-step-up-stir-for-better-wages-working-conditions/article68939266.ece ) It has become eight-hour work days. Unlike a government employee doing a sedentary job in the Secretariat, many of these eight hours are spent walking. There are 26,448 Asha workers in 941 grama panchayats. That’s around 28 Asha workers assigned to 20,000 people or more. They have even met a homebody like me, who haven’t seen my ward member any recently.

Yet for this strenuous work, these women get just Rs 7000 honorarium every month. The health minister claimed on TV that they can earn up to Rs 13,200, adding incentives. Asha workers refuted this. But even if it were true it is still way below minimum wages and a left wing representative should have never spoken about it as if it is an achievement.

Agreed that the union government calls them activists (Accredited Social Health Activists) not workers. The union government also envisioned them as people doing ‘voluntary’ work for four hours over three or four days a week. But on the ground, they have people who oversee their performance in this supposed voluntary work. Just like a job which has a superior. They also have eight-hour work days. This is a job, underpaid labour and not voluntary work. These are working class women who should at least be given working class wages. 

Until last week, Asha workers in Kerala were also protesting against their conditional honorarium. As in they would not even get all of that Rs 7000 as honorarium, if they failed to meet ten conditions. So glad that your government listened to the protesting workers and made the honorarium unconditional last week. But can we gloat over this? It was uncomfortable to read the headline “Kerala Becomes First State to Grant Unconditional Honorarium to ASHA Workers” ( https://www.deshabhimani.com/english/labour-12111/unconditional-honorarium-to-asha-workers-72078 ).

Is this money enough for these women from lower middle class families to survive?

These are women who are available on call even at night. They have been working more than those eight hours. I am not going to repeat what the WHO said about them during Covid or how they rose up to the occasion during every health emergency in your tenure. The government I voted to power rests on the laurels of these women.

While it is valid that the union government should allocate more funds, the health minister can at least treat them with dignity. And the state government must find a way to add to the honorarium. Kerala is nothing without its top notch social development index. We don’t want to be known as a state taking part in the exploitation of Asha workers, even if other states pay even less.

It is not ok for a left wing government to simply shrug and say that laws like Kerala Minimum Wages Rules 1958 don’t apply here. Gentle reminder: it was legal at one point in history for the state to punish oppressed caste people (including my great grandparents) who didn’t maintain a distance from oppressor caste people. Gentle reminder: it was not illegal for feudal landlords to pay labourers some rice and nothing else. If there is no rule yet to pay Asha workers fairly, let’s make that a rule. In fact let’s be “the first state” to do this. Now that would be a great headline.

All of us need to be treated with compassion and dignity. After all, you, I and Asha workers are living in a democracy. (Though not the one in our dreams.)

In solidarity with Asha workers,

archana ravi.

[Archana Ravi is an artist based in Thiruvananthapuram.]