I work as an ASHA worker in the Health Department. Our duty during corona time is to do a daily survey.
To make entries and inform the officials through Whatsapp about people who work outside and are coming back.
And we have to go and enquire every day, thrice a day, in the morning, afternoon and evening,
Then you must not be able to take care of your housework?
I am telling you, we don’t even get to eat food.
You have not even covered your mouth and have not worn anything in your hand. Why are you wandering like this?
Where do I get it from when I haven't got it? And we do not have that much money.
Why do you think we are called ASHA workers?
The work is to find out about people who come from outside.
You are not wearing any cloth on your mouth and also not wearing gloves?
We didn't get it. We have not received anything. ASHA is useless, she just wanders around! I have nothing.
Laxmi ji first tell me where are you at present? Which village are you in?
I am at Gandhipura at present. I am here for the field duty that has been assigned to all the workers because of COVID 19.
In COVID19, our work is to recommend the people who come from outside to stay home quarantined.
That you should stay at home, do not go out anywhere, do not come in contact with anyone.
And in case there are any symptoms like cough or fever in any of them or in anyone in the village,
Then we inform the officials about them, so that they can send the team here
or come and examine them themselves or make arrangements to take them.
When we spoke to you last week, you talked about the protective gears that the ASHA workers needed.
Have they got it now?
No, they have not received it, and there doesn’t seem to be any possibility of getting it.
Because how many days are left now? Only 7-8 days are left and there seems to be no initiative as yet.
And it is not just about one district or one block, it is a matter of all the districts.
Because there are some groups of our association in which we are all there from every district, and we share photographs.
So when we talk to some ASHA workers on the phone, we get to know that they also have the same situation.
There are neither gloves, nor sanitizer, nor mask, we do not have anything.
So how many ASHA workers are there in Bhind?
There are 1500. And now maybe even more, because a lot of new recruitments have been done.
But I am aware of the 1500 count.
This thing about not getting protective gear, are others from the medical sector, like Doctors, ANMs, too have not been provided?
No, it is available to all of them. And besides them, the other departments also that come to the village,
to inspect or to get any kind of information, they also have it.
And through the secretaries of the village panchayat, in some villages,
We have about 10 villages around us and we visit and see these villages,
In 3-4 villages, it is distributed, soaps are there, masks are there with some people.
Meaning everyone has it except the ASHA workers?
Sorry, meaning everyone has it except the ASHA workers?
Yes.
So this can be a very dangerous situation because ASHA workers work all through the day, even Sundays.
And since they go around in the village, then there is definitely a risk of infection.
It will be dangerous when it happens. Even now we fear that some of our ASHA workers might already be infected.
The will power of the ASHA workers is so strong that they don’t say anything even when they work without payment.
Then in the present scenario of such infection they are engaged with the spirit of serving the country and the public.
So I don’t know if they are feeling it or not. While working in the midst of so many infections, I hope no ASHA worker gets infected.
There is no arrangement for their checkups. There is no facility for them that they have been working for so long,
it has been 7 -10 days, so let’s arrange for their personal checkups. Nothing like this is happening.
So have some people connected to the health department been infected? Is there any such news?
Madam Pallavi Jain, who was the Principal Secretary, Health Department, has also been infected.
And besides her, Vijay Kumar ji, the director of the health department, has also been infected.
So you see these people, who work in a hygienic and protected environment, when they can get infected,
then we are like all the time playing in the middle of infection and having our meals…
We have to eat food while in the field; we leave homes in the morning. Where else will we eat?
You have not provided any sanitizer.
You did not create such a place that, after working in the entire village, wandering in the field,
we can sit and eat food at some place.
Any machine sanitization, as is being done everywhere by sprinkling some sort of medicines,
such a center or a room should be arranged in every village too.
Where the ASHA worker can go and feel protected, when free from her day-to-day work, or whenever there is time.
The ASHA worker, by sitting there, using her time, can feel a little refreshed.
Laxmi ji, when we spoke last week, it was also said that the ASHA workers are working without any honorarium.
There was no talk of honorarium then. Has this changed this week? Any development on that?
No, nothing like this happened.
Only through WhatsApp or the social media, we sometimes hear that there are talks about giving Rs.500 to ASHA workers.
That too in April, May and June.
Rs, 500 a day?
No, Rs. 500 will be given for the whole month.
Rs 500 a month? This is a joke.
Yes, Rs 500 a month. It is not a joke it is a dirty joke.
So the migrated workers who have returned, what problems are they facing in the village right now?
The people who came from outside came in the village thinking that we will be safe in the village.
They must have thought that perhaps our sarpanch or people around the village
will make good arrangements for food etc. or the government will do it.
Because we belong there, our Aadhaar card and all IDs are there. These people came thinking all this.
But after coming here, the arrangement for food etc got messed up, or rather stalled.
Because they did not live here, there is no ration etc. available in the house.
And their crops in the fields, if they step out for harvesting the same,
Then the quarantine is not followed and also it does not help arrange their food and ration.
There is no toilet in their houses because they don’t live here. So they have to go out for the toilet.
They cannot remain at home, so the whole village is in danger of getting infected.
For those who came from outside, was there no arrangement from the government, the administration, for their ration and food?
Nothing was done. And when we go to the field separately in each village, those who have come do tell us,
That people from outside visited them, like from block panchayat or from district panchayat, Bhind.
But they just came and told that arrangements will be made for you. However, they have neither come nor checked since then.
Meaning that the crop in the fields, it has become very important for them to cut and use it.
It is very important. Because the crop will be ruined, but what will these people do for the rest of the year?
People just rushed closing whatever work they were engaged in,
They left all their belongings there, and also whatever systems and arrangements they had created for themselves.
Now they do not know whether they will ever be able to go back to those things, to that house.
Some of them were in the business of tikki (cutlets), so how will those people go back to the tikki business?
The ration which was used in tikkis (cutlets) will be spoiled, will rot. How and what will these people do?
Meaning everything is completely messed up.
Yes, it has become messy. What direction their life will turn after that, we do not know.
The nation is functioning in a very pathetic condition right now.
Yes, whenever our association holds discussions, we were discussing last evening only,
The office bearers of the association, we all felt that we need to discuss this a little more.
The government seems to be really in trouble, so why don't we donate the Rs 150 that we get as VHND.
By making that donation, appeal to them that at least with our money, we should be provided masks
We are giving this money only for ourselves.
Laxmi ji, Please take care of yourself.
The way ASHA workers go out every day, you have been given the task of surveying and alerting people,
There is definitely a risk in doing that.
We also hope that the government and the administration will listen to this,
and should make arrangements for protecting all our frontline workers, the health workers like you.
Thank you very much.