The Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), whose strike demanding a hike in honorarium and retirement benefits entered the 60th day on Thursday, has appealed to the Kerala government to offer a compromise formula to end the agitation and to hold further talks with them, rather than dismissing their demand for basic rights.

The Kerala ASHA Health Workers’ Association (KAHWA), which has been leading the ongoing agitation in front of the Secretariat, told reporters here on Thursday that as a labour organisation seeking workers’ rights, it had come down to the rock bottom as far as its demands were concerned and had sought a nominal hike in honorarium from the government.

KAHWA general secretary M.A. Bindu and State president V.K. Sadanandan were reacting to the Chief Minister’s statement on Wednesday that the agitators were not willing to accept any compromise formula.

Though its initial demand was that the honorarium be hiked to ₹21,000, the KAHWA had clarified that they were willing to settle for a nominal hike of ₹3,000 for the time being and that other issues could be thrashed out by the committee proposed by the State government. The government had at no point been willing to concede even this, they said.

Hike in incentives

They said that their strike was for a hike in honorarium and not incentives. The demand for a hike in incentives had already been taken up with the Union government as well as all the representatives of the Centre who had visited the agitation venue. The KAHWA reiterated that they were not adamant about prolonging the strike and sought the Chief Minister’s intervention again in resolving the current stalemate.

The indefinite hunger strike by ASHAs continued for the 22nd day on Thursday.

Mass get-together

ASHAs are now preparing to conduct a mass get-together of people from all walks of life on April 12, as a show of strength and support for their agitation. The mass meet of representatives of civil society is being organised to show the authorities that their struggle seeking basic labour rights was legitimate and to term the agitation an organised anti-government movement was unfortunate

Meanwhile, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has expressed solidarity with the agitation by ASHAs and has called upon the government to recognise ASHAs as public health workers and to meet again with the ASHA representatives to expedite a resolution that delivers for workers. “Failure to do so sets a dangerous precedent at a time when far-right, billionaire-backed political forces on every continent are accelerating their attacks on public health, public services, women workers, democracy and the interests of all working people,” the ITUC said in its letter to the KAHWA.