Lady health workers threaten to boycott polio immunisation drive

They have not received salaries for the past three months

HYDERABAD: Protesting for their unpaid salaries from July, lady health workers (LHWs) have threatened to boycott the upcoming polio immunisation campaign.

Addressing a press conference at the Hyderabad Press Club on Thursday, the Sindh Lady Health Workers Employees Union announced a sit-in to protest against non-payment of salaries. The union threatened to boycott the anti-polio campaign if the issue was not resolved after the sit-in.

The sit-in will be held in Hyderabad on October 17, a day before the Pakistan Peoples Party's scheduled public meeting in the city, announced the union's president, Haleema Zulqarnain. She added that the sit-in will be followed by the boycott of the anti-polio campaign, which is to start on October 23, if their demand was not accepted.



Shama Gulani, the union's general secretary, attributed the delay in payment of salaries to the negligence of the health ministry. She accused the officials of procrastinating and delaying formal approval of the release of salaries for the LHWs of 16 out of the 29 districts of Sindh.

According to Gulani, so far the lists of LHWs of 16 districts of Sindh have been finalised for regularisation while the cases of their counterparts in the remaining districts are under process. She claimed that around 24,000 LHWs have been affected due to non-payment of salaries.