Various state governments’ data has revealed that there are vacancies in Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) positions in several urban Covid-19 hotspots, even though the frontline workers are largely responsible for contact tracing.
The data shows that Maharashtra’s hardest-hit COVID districts have the most ASHA vacancies Jalgaon has 83% vacancy, Pune 65%, Mumbai 64%, Aurangabad 63%, and Solapur 55%. Mumbai only has 260 urban ASHA workers, while Pune has 324.
A similar trend was noted in Madhya Pradesh too. Madhya Pradesh’s urban centres with heavy caseloads were seen to have many vacant ASHA positions. Indore has 20% of positions vacant with 724 urban ASHA workers. Bhopal has 25% vacancies, Ujjain 28%, and Gwalior 52%. These are all equal to or above the state’s average vacancy rate of 20%, according to state government data.
Explaining the reason for such large scale vacancy, Shailesh Sakalle, Deputy Director for ASHA workers at Madhya Pradesh’s National Health Mission told The Indian Express, ‘There are job opportunities in cities, and they get more money. Also, the selection process is complicated.’
Many states are of the opinion that the outbreak has shown the need for a larger ASHA program in urban areas. While vacancies in Delhi are far fewer just 351 out of 6,345 approved spots the state health minister had admitted on June 10 that the city’s contact tracing would be restricted only to immediate contacts because case numbers had outgrown capacity. Each of Delhi’s 11 districts has an average of 500 ASHA workers.
‘ASHA is a type of program that no matter how big it is, it is not enough,’ Gujarat’s Public Health Additional Director Dr Prakash Vaghela said. He told The Indian Express that the state had only 3% vacancies, but did not provide district-wise vacancy data. According to data provided, Ahmedabad has 2,562 ASHA workers, Surat 1,852, Vadodara 1,698, and Rajkot 1,619.
West Bengal’s Director of Health Services Ajoy Chakraborty agreed that urban areas have a smaller frontline workforce. He did not provide vacancy data but said ‘there are almost none’ in urban areas and 10% in rural ones.
Also Read: Four ASHA Workers Test COVID-19 Positive In Punjab, Lack Of Masks, Gloves Cited Reason
