Payments pending, ASHAs in Delhi losing hope of a happy Deepavali

A ‘technical glitch’ while changing the bank account of the Health Department has disrupted incentive disbursement to the workers, say officials

Sunita*, 42, a widow and a mother of two, has been an Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) for close to a decade. The breadwinner of her family, Sunita has been forced to cut down on milk and fruits for her children.

The reason: she has not received her payment/incentive from the government for the last three months.

“I'm buying less milk, fruits, and vegetables now. What else can I do? Inflation is very high and I have to make arrangements with the limited money I have. This is our mazboori (compulsion),” she said, sitting at her house in north-east Delhi’s Sonia Vihar.

Sunita is not the only ASHA facing this crisis. Urmila*, 38, hasn’t paid her son’s school fees for three months; Anjali*, 44, is struggling to pay her loan; Aneeta*, 38, has had to borrow ₹20,000 from her relative to sustain her family.

Payments of hundreds of ASHAs working across the city have been irregular for five to six months now, officials and workers told The Hindu. The activists — who are appointed on a contractual basis and paid incentives depending upon the service they provide — are now worried that if this crisis continues it would ruin their Deepavali festivities.

The main reason behind the pending payments, according to an official, is a “technical glitch” that arose when the Health Department of the Delhi government initiated a process to change its bank account.

The payments of ASHAs are made from funds provided by the Centre as well as the State government.