Five Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers have died on-duty under the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), and saddest part is, kin of not a single deceased has received any compensation till date. The This is what an RTI filed with NMC’s Health Department has revealed. The finding comes despite a Maharashtra State Government decision of August 2024 that promises Rs 10 lakh to families of ASHA workers who die on duty and Rs 5 lakh in cases of permanent disability. 

 

 

The Maharashtra Public Health Department’s official website, phd.maharashtra.gov.in, also records the provision. Under the section titled ‘Support to ASHA from State Government,’ the site states, “According to the State Government decision dated 26 August 2024, in case of accidental death of ASHAs and AFs while performing their duties, Rs 10 lakhs and in case of permanent disability Rs 5 lakhs has been implemented as grant in kind.’ Jammu Narayanrao Anand, President, Nagpur Mahanagar Palika Asthayi Arogya Karmachari Sanghatan, who filed the RTI application, shared that not a single ASHA has received any grant after death. On the State Governments announced figures, he claimed that the information is false.

 

The NMC’s own RTI response corroborates this on record. Out of 1,092 ASHAs currently working across NMC’s urban primary health centres, five have died in service and 81 have resigned. When asked about compensation paid to deceased workers families, NMC deflected the matter to central government. “ASHA workers are neither entitled to Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), nor do they fall under the Provident Fund scheme, he says. Without ESI or Provident Fund coverage, an ASHA worker has no fallback, no hospitalisation cover, no retirement corpus and no death benefit in practice.

 

“The only real safety cover ASHAs have are two central government schemes, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and PM Suraksha Bima Yojana, both of which carry conditions including a BPL requirement and restriction to selected empanelled hospitals. Anand draws a contrast with how the State treats other categories of death. “Families of plane crash victims, railway accident victims, farmers who die from pesticide poisoning, all receive compensation. But the ASHA, who actually performs state functions and ensures the constitutional right to health to every citizen, is left in the wilderness.” On the ground, Reshma Adgale, Member, Mahanagar Palika Asthai Arogya Karmachari Sanghatan, who has been working with ASHA workers in Nagpur for seven years, says families of deceased workers are pushed into destitution. She points to the complete absence of any institutional safety net. One of her colleagues, she adds, is still admitted after suffering a heart attack while on duty. “Who is going to look after her?” she asks. “If something happens to us on duty tomorrow, who will take care of us?” 

 

 

Another ASHA worker who has been in the field for ten years, along with Adgale, has shared that they have not even received their honorarium for six months now. Also that, this is not new and is a common pattern. The worker says, the Rs 10 lakh promise has been in circulation since long and has never materialised. When workers raised the issue through the union and the union approached NMC, the corporation said no directive had come from above and no circular had been issued from the state level authorising the release of funds. Both women point to the pandemic as the defining moment of institutional neglect. “During Covid, we went door to door, face to face with people, while everyone else stayed home, and yet, I saw my colleagues pass away with no compensation” says Adgale. With ASHA workers not getting any real support, the various claims made by the government regarding supporting them remain in question.