‘Proud to be warriors’: Asha workers raise hope

Noida: Long and perilous working hours have become the new normal for 39-year-old Laxmi Kumari — an Accredited Social Health Activist (Asha). She spends most of her day doing fieldwork in Bhojpur and rural areas of Ghaziabad where Covid-19 positive cases have been reported.
Every day, Asha workers are potentially exposing themselves to the coronavirus as they spend several hours in the scalding heat tracing primary and secondary contacts, gathering travel history of residents in a locality and other data. Further, they give this data to their block incharge of Asha, who then shares it with cops and administration.
Asha workers get a fixed weekly salary of Rs 1,000 and a performance-based incentive. They have been told that they will get an additional incentive for carrying out Covid-19 related activities.
“In case any person has a travel history or shows symptoms of the infection, we have to immediately report to the block incharge. A medical team from the block office is then supposed to arrive to test the suspected patient and take further action. Ashas are also required to show the visiting team to the suspect’s house. Besides, I also spread awareness about the situation and precautions,” said Laxmi.
“I wear a mask and gloves, and leave home at 8.30am. The administration has given masks, gloves and sanitiser as PPE kit to all Asha workers. While working and taking details of families, I maintain a 2-metre-distance,” said Laxmi.
By 2pm every day, she gets done with her work. By then, she has covered around 30 houses. For Laxmi and other Ashas, the work can get challenging sometimes when residents do not cooperate. “We hear comments like, ‘She is not here for a survey. She will give our names to cops and they will take us to those horrible quarantine centres’,” said Laxmi, adding that many households have put a ‘no entry’ board outside their homes.
Laxmi returns home to her children and husband who are worried about her safety. However, she said: “This is the time that the nation needs our service more than ever before and we are proud to be the warriors in the Covid-19 battle.”
“After attacks on doctors were reported in Moradabad, the police now accompany us in some areas,” she added. “However, I am afraid of transmitting the infection to my children. After coming from the field, I go straight to the bathroom, bathe, change clothes. Only then do I enter the house,” she said.