India coronavirus: The underpaid and unprotected women leading the Covid-19 war

Some 900,000 female community health workers are on the frontline as part of India’s battle against Covid-19. But they are poorly paid, ill-prepared and vulnerable to attacks and social stigma, reports BBC Marathi’s Shrikant Bangale.

“The value of our life is just 30 rupees [less than $1], according to the government,” says Alka Nalawade, a community health worker in the western state of Maharashtra. “The government is paying us 1,000 rupees ($13; £10) a month for corona-related work,” she adds. “That is 30 rupees daily for putting our life in danger.” Ms Nalawade is among the state’s 70,000 Ashas, short for Accredited Social Health Activists. She is a single mother, and has been doing this job for 10 years now in Pawarwadi village, where she lives.


Ashas are drawn from local and largely rural communities, and are a crucial element in India’s primary and community health programmes. They go door-to-door educating people about maternal and child health, contraception, immunisation and sanitation, as well as enrolling them in health programmes and monitoring the results. 
Their role in the fight against Covid-19 is not that different - they visit the homes they have been assigned, educate families about isolation, and monitor people for symptoms of the virus. But the risk is far greater than anything they have faced before.

For one, they don’t have the right gear, including masks or sanitiser. India is facing a severe shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), and even doctors and nurses are unprotected. Several Ashas told the BBC that they use cotton masks which they wash daily so they can re-use them - and for sanitiser, they have a bottle of spirit that they mix with water. One of them, Karuna Shinde, says she carries a scarf with her, which she uses to cover her face.... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52279025



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