About time!

Welcome as it is, there must be lingering concern about how quickly Punjab government will move to act on the new Bill

Anybody with the slightest understanding and awareness of primary health care delivery in Punjab will be aware that the Lady Health Workers (LHWs) are its backbone. They deliver a basic service under the primary health care programme and family planning initiative and will be found in every town, village and city in the province. Like so many health-related services, their terms and conditions of service had become entangled in the devolution of budgets and responsibilities to the provinces under the Eighteenth Amendment, and now the Punjab Assembly has addressed at least some of their grievances by the passing of the Punjab Reproductive, Maternal, Neo-natal and Child Health Authority Bill, 2014. Hundreds of LHWs had been staging a sit-in on the Mall in Lahore calling for their positions to be regularised and clarified.

This is no small issue, as there are 48,000 LHWs in Punjab which includes 200 supervisors. They had been working under a federal programme and the federal government was committed to funding for it until June 30, 2017. Under the new legislation, an authority is going to be set up to manage this vital programme, and the Punjab Reproductive, Maternal, Neo-natal and Child Health Authority is shortly to come into being. This body will administer and regulate affairs of the employees. Hitherto, the LHWs had been in a legislative limbo at the same time as there being an expectation that they would continue with their duties. The new legislation does away with the anomalies in their position. Welcome as it is, there must be a lingering concern about how quickly the Punjab government will move to act on the new Bill. Large complex authorities such as that being proposed do not spring from the ground fully-formed overnight. They require buildings, staff, vehicles and the nuts and bolts of office equipment. All of these need to be addressed with a real sense of urgency. We look forward to more good news in the near future.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2014.

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