ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers
By Yashasvini Awasthy, Content Analyst
Anganwadi workers and ASHAs and — since their inception in 1975 and 2006 respectively — have established themselves as the backbone of public healthcare in India, acting as the primary source of aid for the rural population of the country. While the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) essentially take charge of the healthcare system for the rural, the Anganwadi workers (as a part of the Integrated Child Development Scheme) manage care centers — known as Anganwadis — for mothers and children all over the country.
This community of healthcare workers solely employs women, as a legislative decision made by the Government with the hopes of increasing female workforce participation in the country. ASHAs and Anganwadi workers have worked tirelessly to carry out their tasks as the first line of defence in any health related crisis. As seperate bodies, ASHAs have been responsible for widespread immunisation, public sanitation and publicizing various health schemes while Anganwadi workers have greatly contributed to the reduction of infant mortality rates, care and nutrition of mothers and the education of children of the rural population.
Theoretically, the parent schemes of these two communities of workers depict a positive social and economic impact for society. The need for aid in a country with a rural population as large as India’s creates an ever increasing demand for ASHAs and Anganwadis — thereby providing a good opportunity for women to enter the workforce. However, this is where the problem lies. Despite the full days of work that both ASHAs and Anganwadi workers carry out, they are not categorised under the formal sector. This, of course, also translates to the fact that they don’t receive salaries or (minimum) wages but rather an inadequate sum of about 4500–7000 (3000–6000 until last year) rupees as “honorariums” and incentive based pays for their work as “volunteers” — all to avoid paying these millions of workers minimum wages.
The basis of this categorisation under the informal sector stems from a pre-existing patriarchal society. The tasks of ASHAs and Anganwadi workers are seen as an extension of their household caregiving activities rather than as productive services to the economy. A low financial value is awarded to their efforts which also translates to undervalued work of women across the spectrum — including the formal sector. The entire set up of honorariums seems to lead to lower wages for women in the organised sector as well as an increased gender wage gap owing to the fact that their efforts are diminished both socially and financially as is the case of these workers in the informal sectors. The schemes then prove themselves somewhat redundant, as the increased participation of women in the workforce is dampened by this increased wage gap and an overall mechanism of the undervaluation of the work of women.
In recent years, as frontline and emergency workers, ASHAs and Anganwadi workers were also tasked with carrying out surveys, screening migrant workers and providing care to those infected with COVID-19 after the onset of the pandemic. Despite being assigned work that was sure to bring them in contact with the virus and infected persons, the government failed to provide them with PPE (personal protective equipment) kits. What’s more is that these increased workloads did not lead to an increase in honorariums or even incentive based pays. Infact, Anganwadis — in an interview with the Hindustan Times — claimed that they weren’t paid their honorariums for four months.
The government recently announced the inclusion of ASHAs and Anganwadis in the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package with an insurance cover of 50 lakh rupees following widespread protests by these healthcare workers in 2020 and 2021. However, this is simply a temporary solution to what is a long established system of underpaid women.
The need to formalise the services of ASHAs and Anganwadi workers is now stronger than ever in light of their indispensable services during the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for these jobs are high due to the states of poverty and unemployment among the rural population of the country but in the long run these schemes can go on to create large gaps in the public healthcare system and the workforce of the country.
