The United Nurses’ Association (UNA) has said that the financial contribution made by the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) community helped sustain their recent agitation across the State demanding a salary revision. Nurses from the West Asia have been the biggest online campaigners and contributors to the cause along with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
“Most of our NRI friends mobilised the money after forming small groups and credited it directly to our official bank account. This was in addition to individual contributions made by nursing friends for district-level agitations,” said Bipin N. Paul, State treasurer of the association.
He told The Hindu on Saturday that the fund was spent mainly for the transportation of nurses to various venues of protest. The donations also helped the association meet expenses of erecting ‘panthals’, and supply of food and drinking water, he said.
UNA district joint secretary Suhail Vannarath said the main social media campaigners during the agitation were NRI nurses who were well aware of the plight of their counterparts in Kerala hospitals.
‘Thank-you’ note
As a token of their love and gratitude, the UNA has decided to draft an official ‘thank-you’ note for the overseas community and upload it on official social media pages and the website. Mr. Paul said the plan was slightly delayed due to the celebrations, but the contribution of the NRI community would be acknowledged in a befitting way.
In other States
Buoyed by the success of the strike across Kerala, the UNA has decided to form State-level chapters in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. The decision was taken after the association was flooded with requests from other States to address various grievances, including poor pay and work schedule. Preliminary discussions for unit formation were completed in Karnataka and Maharashtra recently.
