Legislature and Administration in the Chhattisgarh state has-More than 16,000 workers of the National Health Mission (NHM) will strike indefinitely beginning Monday, August 18. This has been made after the 10-point demand charter issued by the employees was ignored even after the August 15 ultimatum issued to the state government. The workers of the NHM officially warned of their action by sending a letter on Saturday, as well as sending a letter to the district collectors, CMHOs and BMOs about their move to go on strike.
The strike is also likely to hurt the healthcare facilities in the state hard since emergency centres will also be closed this time around, according to the NHM Employees Association. The decision was announced simultaneously by the state president of the association, Dr. Amit Kumar Miri, general secretary Kaushlesh Tiwari and some other senior leaders like Dr. Ravishankar Dixit, Puran Das, and Hemant Sinha. They also verified that the entire NHM workforce in Chhattisgarh will be involved in the indefinite strike, and this included the aspect of the staff working in SNCUs (Special Newborn Care Units) that are essential in infant health.
The main demands by the employees are regularization and permanent absorption of NHM staff, creation of a special Public Health Cadre, fixing of grade pay, making work evaluation systems should be made transparent, and the already promised salary increment of 27% should be implemented. The reservation in regular recruitments, compassionate appointments, coverage of medical and other forms of leaves, a defined transfer policy and not less than 10 lakh cashless health insurance cover are some other important demands.
The staff claims that it is long overdue because the state government has promised to take up the matter severally yet nothing has been done on the ground. The strike is set to be highly disruptive to the healthcare system because, in addition to emergency services being cancelled, this will place a tremendous burden on hospitals as well as the patients.
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