Rallying for rights Premium

Women in Andhra Pradesh fight for better working conditions, maternity leave & retirement benefits at Dharna Chowk.

On any given day, the Dharna Chowk, an open-air space in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, echoes with the impassioned voices of people trying to draw the government’s attention to their plight. Red flags flutter against the sea of blue saris, as the female workforce comprising Anganwadi workers and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) have transformed the public arena, staging protests for the past two weeks seeking better working conditions.

Dharna Chowk has turned into a space for women, by women and of women as they remind the Andhra Pradesh government, through novel demonstrations every day, that they are being given short shrift. One day they seek alms from the public, another they play out a tableau of Gandhiji’s three monkeys.

About 55,400 ASHAs in the State are today on protest, demanding nine provisions: of maternity leave, a hike in honorarium from ₹10,000 to ₹26,000, retirement benefits, and dearness and travel allowances. Simultaneously, 1.05 lakh Anganwadi workers and helpers have been on an indefinite strike for the past two weeks in the State demanding that the government concede to 11 demands, including retirement benefits.

K. Padma Kumari, an ASHA from Nagari in Chittoor district, visits Vijayawada to attend meets and protests without fail. Of the nine demands put forth by the ASHAs, one pertains to maternity leave. “There were countless times when I had to wake up in the middle of the night to take a pregnant woman in labour to Tirupati for delivery. Be it a holiday or festival or even when I was sick, I ensured that I was available for the 2,000-odd people I take care of. People in rural pockets depend on us for everything, and we cannot look away when they need us,” she says.

But, when Padma Kumari was pregnant with her first child in September 2019, she was denied leave, because ASHAs do not have maternity leave, a right that every working woman is entitled to. Until the day before her delivery on May 10, 2020, she was on duty.

Lanka Santhi, State general secretary of the ASHA Workers’ Union, affiliated to the CPI’s All India Trade Union Congress, says usually an ASHA does not get more than two weeks of maternity leave. “It also depends on the ‘generosity’ of a medical officer that we report to. We are at their mercy,” she says.

Padma Kumari, a mother of two now, recalls: “I used to walk nearly 5 kilometres every day from Ekambarakuppam [in Chittoor district], where I live, to the ward secretariat in Nagari [in the same district] during the eighth and ninth months of pregnancy when the COVID lockdown was in place. Once my husband dropped me off at my workplace on his two-wheeler, but on his way back, he was intercepted by the police. He had to pay a fine of ₹400 for stepping out during a lockdown. I had to walk, as we could not afford to pay a fine every day.”