Several women health assistants intensified their protest for a wage hike on Friday, by voicing their demands outside the Chief Minster’s office and braving subsequent detention by the police. Formerly known as Auxiliary Nurse Midwife, the health assistants were protesting for a pay-hike, claiming to have been recruited in 2003 on terms that would now entitle them to salaries significantly higher than their current salary of ₹10,000. The protests have been going on for a few months, mainly at the offices of health and family department, in Koti.
“We are demanding ₹15,000. The health administration has not responded despite multiple representations. We were also promised that our jobs would be made permanent,” said K. Prameela, a health assistant working in Hyderabad. The protesters claimed around 720 health assistants had stopped working since the protests began.
Friday’s detention comes on the heels of Tuesday’s incident, when some health assistants scaled the Director of Medical Education’s building and threatened to jump if their demands were not met. Maintaining they would continue their protest, the health assistants claimed their abstinence from work was a setback to the State’s health welfare schemes like KCR Kits and non-communicable diseases screening.
Government sources say that the administration is seized of the matter and is considering the demand. They, however, deny that the protesting health assistants have impacted the implementation of health programmes. Those protesting were hired under a special recruitment drive and were not part of State’s regular work health-assistant workforce, an official said.
