An underdeveloped semi-feudal society considers the ASHA worker some kind of ‘low caste’ woman who is given the status of ‘Chamarin’ i.e., a Dalit. She is often humiliated by doctors and permanent nursing staff if she fails to bring the patients in time due to difficulty in transportation, which is actually not her fault.
Lack of
infrastructural facilities like proper roads, local transport etc. are still
major issues in rural Bihar. The ASHA workers are supposed to be given a meagre
sum of Rs. 600 for each institutional delivery, but according to first-hand
accounts, they get only Rs. 300 and the rest is shared by the staff in the
PCHs. It is also strange that Rs 150 per child as honorarium is given to an
Asha worker only under the condition that she achieves total 100% immunization
in the village; in case it drops to 50% she is paid nothing, whereas for a
pulse polio programme she is given a paltry sum of Rs. 75 for a whole day of
work. For an individual completing family planning, Rs. 150 is given. Several ASHA
workers have complained of sexual harassment by doctors, male employees at the
PHCs and hospitals as well as male relatives of the expectant mother.
