ASHA workers to end protest outside Kerala Secretariat; will move agitation to districts

Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 31 (PTI) A group of ASHA workers who were holding a day-night protest outside the Kerala Secretariat here for 265 days, demanding to hike their honorarium to Rs 21,000 and Rs 5 lakh as post-retirement benefits, on Friday announced the end of their current mode of agitation.

The Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association (KAHWA), which has been leading the protest, said that their agitation will now move to the grassroots level in the districts.

KAHWA state general secretary M A Bindu said that they will also campaign against the LDF in the upcoming local body polls.

"We will tell people not to vote for this government," she said.

She further said that the protest could have been ended or settled within 10-15 days, but was prolonged for so long -- 265 days -- because of the state government.

"So, that politics has to be told to the people and we will do that," Bindu said.

She said that the protesting ASHA workers had only demanded the basic human right to be paid appropriately for their hard work.

"But the government only increased our honorarium by a miniscule Rs 1,000 per month which comes to Rs 33.33 per day. It is an insult to our agitation," she said.

Bindu also pointed out that when the protest commenced around eight-and-a-half months ago, coconut oil was priced at Rs 190 per litre and currently it cost around Rs 450 and therefore, the increase in the honorarium was negligible.

Earlier in the day, the KAHWA state general secretary said that through their various forms of agitation, including a hunger strike by some of their members for a few months and shaving of their heads by some others, they have made several gains, and now it was time to move on to a different mode of protest.

She said that due to their agitation, the central government increased their fixed incentive to Rs 1,500 and decided to provide Rs 50,000 to ASHA workers who completed 10 years of service and the state government increased their honorarium by Rs 1,000.

Bindu said that the state government, which had been "stubbornly" refusing to hike the honorarium, was recently forced to increase it and also announce that all the arrears would be cleared.

The state government also constituted a committee to study the requirements of the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers.

"Since we were able to achieve all this during our 265-day-long protest, we will end our current mode of agitation in front of the Secretariat tomorrow (November 1). We will continue our agitation till our demands are met in full. We will continue our protests in the districts from the grassroots level," she told reporters here.

She also said that on February 10, 2026, which will mark a year since the commencement of their agitation, they will hold a huge protest rally in front of the Secretariat to achieve their demands.

S Mini, the state vice president of KAHWA, spoke along similar lines, saying that they were able to force the state government, which had refused to hke their honorarium, to increase the same by Rs 1,000. "It is a big victory for us," she said. PTI HMP KH