Hindi English Translation || Editorial || ​Labour of care: On the Anshakalin Stri Parichars, women community health workers

​Labour of care: On the Anshakalin Stri Parichars, women community health workers

Women who facilitate (सुगम बनाना, आसान करना) rural health care should get better wages

For decades, the women who serve as Anshakalin Stri Parichars (ASPs) in Maharashtra have been performing some of the hardest, yet least acknowledged, labour in the rural health system. For a wide breadth of responsibility, their monthly wage has stagnated (स्थिरता, ठहराव) at ₹3,000 since 2016, decades behind inflation. They also lack job security, pensions, safety gear and travel allowance (An amount of money paid regularly to a person, often for a specific purpose; a permitted amount or quantity). In 2023, a labour court in Nagpur acknowledged that they deserved at least the protection of the Minimum Wages Act but left the decision to the State. In keeping with its verbal-only assurances, the State has even now only promised them ₹6,000 a month by December 2025 — much less than what multi-purpose health workers receive. The indifference (उदासीनता) is not accidental: ASPs, who predate Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and anganwadi workers, have been easy to ignore because they are poor, rural women. Their neglect reveals a gendered and caste-inflected hierarchy of labour within public health, where skilled work is low status and devalued because of who performs it. Their ongoing protests are part of an arc of agitation (उत्तेजना, आंदोलन) following similar sit-ins in Kolhapur, Nagpur, Ratnagiri and Yavatmal. In this regard, their plight resonates (प्रतिध्वनित, गूंजना) with that of ASHAs in other States. ASHAs, created under the National Rural Health Mission in 2005, are the community’s first link to the health system and are also officially classified as “volunteers” rather than employees, compensated only through oft-delayed incentives, amounting to less than subsistence (निर्वाह). Across States, ASHAs have repeatedly agitated for fixed honoraria (मानदेय), recognition as government staff and social security, and, like the ASPs’ protests, have borne the same refrain: States cannot continue to build their health systems on the underpaid labour of women.

These struggles highlight a structural contradiction. While India relies heavily on women community health workers and attendants to deliver maternal and child health care, immunisation and disease surveillance (निगरानी), especially in rural areas, it refuses to recognise them as workers entitled to minimum benefits and dignity. The reliance (निर्भरता) is often framed as offering rural women “opportunities” for public service. Yet, in practice, it is exploitation. These women risk snakebite while clearing hospital grounds and death in accidents en route to vaccination duty without insurance or compensation (मुआवजा). A health system that does not value the people who keep it functional and link its margins to formal care is bound to sabotage (Deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage) itself. To secure rural health is to secure the rights of those women through living wages, safe working conditions and stable employment.

Courtesy: The Hindu

Important Word List With Meaning

1.Facilitate (Verb)

Hindi Meaning – सुगम बनाना, आसान करना
English Meaning – To make an action or process easy or easier.

2.Stagnation (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – स्थिरता, ठहराव
English Meaning – The state of not flowing or moving; a lack of activity, growth, or development.

3.Compensation (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – मुआवजा
English Meaning – Something, typically money, awarded to someone in recognition of loss, injury, or hardship.

4.Indifference (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – उदासीनता
English Meaning – Lack of interest, concern, or sympathy.

5.Agitation (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – उत्तेजना, आंदोलन
English Meaning – A state of anxiety or nervous excitement; the action of arousing public concern about an issue.

6.Resonate (Verb)

Hindi Meaning – प्रतिध्वनित, गूंजना
English Meaning – To evoke or suggest images, memories, or emotions; to produce or be filled with a deep, full, reverberating sound.

7.Subsistence (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – निर्वाह
English Meaning – The minimum resources (such as food and shelter) needed to support life.

8.Honoraria (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – मानदेय
English Meaning – Payments given for professional services that are rendered nominally without charge, typically a single payment to a speaker or writer.

9.Surveillance (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – निगरानी
English Meaning – Close observation, especially of a suspected spy or criminal.

10.Reliance (Noun)

Hindi Meaning – निर्भरता
English Meaning – The state of depending on someone or something.

11.Sabotage (Verb)

English Meaning – Deliberately destroy, damage, or obstruct (something), especially for political or military advantage.

12.Allowance (Noun)

English Meaning – An amount of money paid regularly to a person, often for a specific purpose; a permitted amount or quantity.