No fruits for labour: LHWs threaten to boycott anti-polio drive in Punjab

Will also withdraw from dengue, family planning initiatives

ISLAMABAD:

Some 52,000 lady health workers (LHWs) in Punjab have threatened to boycott the anti-polio drive if their issues are left unresolved by the first week of October.

They said that they intend to boycott the Sub National Immunisation Days (SNIDs) which is scheduled to begin on October 12 in the high-risk areas. They also said that they would stage a sit-in on the Mall Road, Lahore. They will also withdraw their services from efforts under way to control the spread of dengue fever and improve family planning.

Rukhsana Anwar, president of LHWs  association in Punjab, said the provincial government is assigning more responsibilities to them yet it is not paying them well or on time. Their salaries over the last two years are pending, according to which every LHW deserves to get Rs150,000 per person, she claimed.

“During anti-polio drives we work seven days but are only paid Rs1,150 for three days,” she said. It is not easy for the LHWs to work in hot weather and go door to door to vaccinate children without getting any money, she said.

“Many of our LHWs have fainted and a few suffered from severe migraine,” she said. Anwar pointed out that under 24/7 service delivery all LHWs have to pay from their pockets to transport pregnant women to Basic Health Units, (BHU) and hospitals.

Besides this, the provincial government pays them their salaries with a delay of two to three months, said Anwar.

“This government make tall claims about empowering women but while considering its attitude towards us one could see how much they are fulfilling its this promise,” she said.

When LHWs become helpless because of domestic financial issues the only option left is to  come out on the streets to campaign for their basic rights, she said.

“Now that Eid is coming we do not have money for new clothes for our children. They are already under the burden of debt,” she said.

A senior Punjab health official said on the condition of anonymity that the issues of LHWs are genuine. He blamed the federal government for payment delays and making false committments to provide salaries till 2017.

Through bridge financing from the Punjab government, the official said, the provincial health department is trying to pay LHW salaries on time. “The federal releases fund to the provincial government after getting funds from the Planning Commission”. Dr Baseer Achakzai is responsible for LHWs at the federal level.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2015.