January 15, 2021
India’s mass immunisation plan for Covid-19 hinges on some of the lowest-paid workers in its healthcare system.
The first phase of the vaccine rollout, which begins on Jan. 16 and will cover healthcare and frontline workers, and will largely depend on trained vaccinators and supervisors. But once the vaccine rollout is opened out for the entire population, local healthcare mechanisms, especially those that depend on auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs), and accredited social health activists (or Asha workers) will be crucial.
Asha workers (an acronym that translates as “hope” in Hindi), along with the volunteer Anganwadi workers, and the more qualified ANMs, form the backbone of community healthcare in India. They are hired by the states and their salaries paid by funds from the central and state governments. Nearly all of them are women.
Travails of ASHA Workers During COVID-19 Call for Renewed Focus on Public Health
ASHA workers and other community healthcare workers have experienced extra working hours, loss of pay and social apathy during the pandemic.
ASHA workers interacting during a meeting at an urban primary health centre in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh. Photo: Jignesh Mistry
Health12/Jan/2021
Walking into 2021, if there was one positive to be identified with the large-scale outbreak of a pandemic in 2020 in India, and the rest of the developing world, it would have been this: a primary focus given by most governments and their executive agencies to improve healthcare services and ensure more affordable access of them for large scale populations. This has been done irrespective of the ‘fiscal limitations’ and ‘weak governance systems’ cited earlier as reasons for making healthcare a lesser priority, and an area of investment to be outsourced to the private sector.
: Tuesday, January 12, 2021, 6:50 PM IST
Mira Bhayandar: MBMC finds 224 tuberculosis and 12 leprosy cases in fresh survey amid COVID-19 pandemic
FPJ Correspondent
The health department of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) under the leadership of civic chief Dr Vijay Rathod has detected a total of 224 and 12 patients suffering from tuberculosis (TB) and leprosy respectively, in a fresh survey which was conducted in two phases from 1 to 31 December, 2020.
The MBMC had set up a target to cover a population of around 3.15 lakh, mainly from the 35 slum clusters, densely-populated pockets, construction sites, hamlets and other far-to-reach places to detect patients with communicable diseases like TB and leprosy across the twin-city. However, the 124 two-member teams comprising Asha Workers, Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) and medical volunteers managed to screen 2,89,764 people due to locked homes and refusals at some places, prompting the district administration to launc
‘We want an India that is prosperous and resembles those nations whose people have the most freedoms’
‘We want an India that is prosperous and resembles those nations whose people have the most freedoms’
January 09, 2021 16:30 IST
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January 09, 2021 16:30 IST
Updated:
January 10, 2021 07:12 IST
As Hindutva majoritarianism pushes ahead, the need for individual participation in everyday activism becomes more urgent, argues columnist and translator Aakar Patel in his new book. An excerpt below
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A student protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in Guwahati. | Photo Credit:
PTI
As Hindutva majoritarianism pushes ahead, the need for individual participation in everyday activism becomes more urgent, argues columnist and translator Aakar Patel in his new book. An excerpt below