Today, exactly 266 days after it began, the ASHA workers’ protest led by the Kerala ASHA Health Workers’ Association vowed to continue the protest in a new form. Since the evening before, news channels and in the morning, newspapers, were claiming that the protest had ‘ended’ or was going to be ‘wound up.’ The meeting the KAHWA organised in front of the State Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram was both a celebration of the victory the workers had secured over the hubris of the CPM and its lord and master, the Chief Minister of Kerala. But more importantly, it was a declaration of the workers’ determination to continue the struggle. The local body elections are imminent, and the protesting workers intend to turn their grievance into a campaign issue.

Meanwhile, the CPM and its hangers-on are busy making one of the most foolish announcements in the history of the state — that it is entirely free, apparently, of ‘extreme poverty’. Like a bunch of drunken monkeys, they throw stones at serious researchers who have been asking to see the study on which this claim is based, and the data collected as part of the identification process. This included even major literary figures who have thrown in their lot with the CPM quite shamelessly — behaving like craven kochammas or thugs. None of them can see that this ‘identification exercise’ was carried out in very large measure by the very unrecognized, underpaid women who the government takes for granted. ASHA workers played a major role in it, and they are expected to bear the responsibility of responding to the health needs of these families as well. And yet, the government did not deem fit to invite them to their ‘celebration’.

The ASHA workers’ celebration was not a mere gesture of defiance. The raise of Rs 33/day is rightly perceived as an insult and mocking condescension, but the workers’ leaders were jubilant that a great many issues about their work that they had raised were actually resolved. The tasks that ASHAs are expected to complete are no longer vague and changeable; they have been evened throughout the state. The criteria system for honoraria, as well as the age of retirement at 62 have been removed, and so now Rs 7000 is fixed honorarium. The central government had to concede a substantial raise in the incentives and in retirement benefits. The fixed incentive went up from Rs 2000 to Rs 3500. Team-based incentives of Rs 1000 are being distributed to ASHAs since April 2025. Retirement benefits from the Central government have been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000. Through the protest, the ASHAs everywhere came to know that they had health care benefits and health insurance for their families (even the all-powerful CITU unions did not know of these, apparently!). The wages are paid in a more timely fashion, and there is now a fixed deadline before which documents necessary for timely payment of honoraria have to be uploaded. Now that they cannot be used in any which way that the (many) government departments please, the ASHA workers have time to find other gainful work to survive. But above all, the protestors pointed to the empowerment from within that resulted from persistent public-political struggle, and the experience of ‘public happiness’ that it brought. It was an emotional parting.

Nevertheless, they see that their protest is crucial for the working class as a whole. The following oath (in Malayalam) was taken by the ASHA workers at the protest site today:

We are ASHAs who perform hard labour for Kerala — we declare with our heads raised high: we, ASHA warriors, women workers who struggle with poverty and want, we who have survived many kinds of trials to conduct our protest in front of the nerve-centre of State government over the past 266 days, we will not be fatigued or flustered — we will fight on till we win.

This struggle is for the basic and fair rights of all 26,125 ASHAs in Kerala. Along with this we recognize that this protest is energizing in an unprecedented way the struggles of all sections of workers, the working class itself , and especially the battle of women workers who face terrible exploitation in many different workplaces.

We will continue to move forward without surrendering to the hubris of power; we will not bow our heads. We will continue to fight unitedly staying beyond the differences of political party affiliation, caste, and religion. We vow to keep fighting until a full victory is achieved.

We remember with pride all those who stand with us health workers — in the cultural field, in social fields, the fields of worker activism, and media.

We salute all of Kerala who support this struggle!

We declare in one voice: this struggle will not end before we take our rights! We make this vow together — we will fight and we will win!