ASHA workers to end 266-day protest on Kerala Formation Day; take stir to district level

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 31 (IANS) The marathon 266-day protest by ASHA workers in front of the Secretariat will come to an end, with the health volunteers deciding to take their agitation to the districts and to the people as Kerala heads toward local body elections soon.

The ASHA Samara Samithi said the sit-in will be wound up on Kerala Formation Day on Saturday, marking a tactical shift rather than a withdrawal.

The decision follows the state government’s move to raise their monthly honorarium by Rs 1,000, taking it from Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000.

The workers, who had originally demanded Rs 21,000, called the hike “meagre” but claimed it as a moral victory.

“Every right we have achieved has come through struggle,” said Samithi leader M.A. Bindu.

“Those who once mocked our protest now acknowledge its impact. The government’s change of heart is the outcome of our relentless fight.”

Association leaders said the Rs 33-a-day increase falls far short of the demand for minimum wages and criticised the government for not announcing retirement benefits.

“The form of our struggle is changing, not its spirit,” said Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association president V.K. Sadanandan, announcing that the group will now campaign against the ruling Left Front in the upcoming polls.

ASHA workers plan to launch a statewide door-to-door campaign under the slogan “No votes for those who ignored us.”

The organisation will also observe Saturday as “Victory Day,” with participation from workers across the state.

The protest, one of the longest sustained labour actions in recent memory, became a symbol of women-led grassroots mobilisation.

Even as the government credited allied unions such as CITU for the wage hike, ASHA leaders maintained that the real credit belongs to the protesting workers.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, meanwhile, has rolled out a raft of pre-poll welfare measures, including hikes in social welfare pensions and new benefits for women, pensioners, and youth, but ASHA workers insist that their fight for fair pay and recognition is far from over.

--IANS

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