ASHA workers in UP meet Priyanka Gandhi; raise honorarium, service conditions

A delegation of ASHA workers met Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi in Lucknow on Thursday and apprised her of their problems related to honorarium and service conditions.

The Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers had tried to meet Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during his recent visit to Shahjahanpur, but they were roughed up by police, a Congress spokesman said.

The ASHA workers met Priyanka Gandhi, who arrived in the state capital Thursday morning, and told her about the issues faced by them, including those related to their wages and service conditions, he said.

They also showed Gandhi the injuries sustained by them in Shahjahanpur, the spokesman said.

The Congress general secretary had on Wednesday accused the Uttar Pradesh government of "insulting" the work done by ASHA workers, and promised an honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month for ASHA and Anganwadi workers if her party was voted to power in the assembly polls next year.

Taking to Twitter, she had also shared a purported video of the alleged "assault" by police on the ASHA workers in Shahjahanpur.

"Every assault on the ASHA sisters by the UP government is an insult to the work done by them. My ASHA sisters have given their services diligently in coronavirus times and on other occasions. Honorarium is their right. It is the duty of the government to listen to them," Gandhi had tweeted in Hindi.

"ASHA sisters deserve respect and I am with them in this fight," she said.