Unpaid bonuses, abnormal incentives: Pandemic isn’t the one fight for ‘mitanins’ in Chhattisgarh

Surekha Dhivar (41) has now not overlooked paintings for a unmarried day in nearly a yr. A mitanin operating in Raipur, she went door-to-door to scan over 200 properties in her house for just about 3 months, checking on susceptible teams for Covid-like signs. Then again, in spite of pleasant a couple of roles within the struggle in opposition to the pandemic, Dhivar is amongst greater than 70,000 mitanins around the state who’re but to obtain the overall cost of the promised Covid bonus, but even so abnormal disbursement of task-based incentives.

A mitanin – because of this “feminine pal” within the native dialect – is a neighborhood well being volunteer assigned to every village underneath the Chhattisgarh govt’s well being programme.

In Chhattisgarh, the Nationwide Well being Undertaking, in April, promised Rs 1,000 as further incentive however the mitanins had been handiest paid for 2 months. In keeping with resources, the cash to be paid to a mitanin comes from each state and Central proportion.

In Dantewada’s Toyalanka, but even so checking up on kids, pregnant moms and the aged, Bindu Sodhi (45) additionally needed to stay a vigil at quarantine facilities, whilst carrying out door-to-door scanning in semi-urban spaces and taking folks with signs for checks as wanted. And now, with the federal government rolling out the Covid vaccination programme, Sodhi and different mitanins also are accompanying the aged to the vaccination facilities — regularly a ways away and at their very own price.

Then again, in contrast to different vaccinations which discover a point out within the declare shape submitted via mitanins as duties on which they’re incentivised, the Covid-19 inoculation isn’t indexed.

“Simply because It’s not that i am going to get cash for it, I will’t flip folks down,” Dhivar mentioned. However her circle of relatives of 4 is faring poorly, she mentioned. “I’ve been managing one way or the other. The periodic cash of Rs 3,400 would come via the 10th of each month. Now not handiest have we now not gotten the Rs 1,000 Covid bonus promised for all of the months of Covid-related paintings, I haven’t been paid even for February,” she mentioned.

Sodhi mentioned, “In April, we had been advised that we’d get Rs 1000 further for Covid-19 tasks. We were given paid Rs 2,000 in September and that used to be it.”

The Further Secretary and Undertaking Director of the Nationwide Well being Undertaking launched a letter in March closing yr, mentioning that “further incentives for ASHAs and ASHA facilitator were licensed for 3 months from April to June”. Any other letter via the project director in April that yr said that “further incentives is also paid to ASHAs for Covid-related paintings, from the duration in their engagement on this paintings”.

Whilst the letter said the stipulated duration from January 1, 2020, in Chhattisgarh, the federal government determined to pay for handiest 3 months, April thru June. Despite the fact that bills for 2 months were launched normally, mitanins and rights activists imagine they deserve extra. “It’s now not that the paintings resulted in June. We now have labored for all of the yr or even now, one way or the other or the opposite to stay the pandemic at bay,” Sodhi mentioned.

The mitanins wrote a memorandum to the well being minister and Leader Minister in November. “We don’t need the coconut they offer us at the Mitanin Diwas. We would like cash promised to us. The Congress govt promised of their manifesto a minimal cost of Rs 5,000, we don’t seem to be getting any place as regards to that,” Dhivar mentioned.

Whilst Chhattisgarh NHM Undertaking Director Priyanka Shukla didn’t reply to queries, Well being Minister T S Singh Deo mentioned, “In Emergency Covid-19 Reaction Plan, we were given approval for 3 months, for this reason we’ve made cost for 2 months and process for cost of 3rd month is underneath procedure… The mitanins are some of the a number of grassroots employees who’ve been operating relentlessly all through the Covid-19 state of affairs. The Central govt must make sure that finances are allotted for the Covid warriors.”