HT Correspondent
GOSSAIGAON, March 5: In solidarity with the state-wide work strike called by NHM (National Health Mission) employees, contractual health workers of Gossaigaon Block Primary Health Centre and Gossaigaon RNB Civil Hospital in Kokrajhar continued their protest for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. The work strike, called from March 4 to March 6, witnessed participation from nearly 200 healthcare workers, including doctors, pharmacists, and employees from various levels.
Under NHM Assam, around 24,000 employees, including officers and staff, have been serving in the state’s healthcare sector in various positions since 2006. Among them, approximately 20,000 employees, including medical officers, dental officers, CHOs, pharmacists, GNM/staff nurses, laboratory technicians, physiotherapists, radiographers, and NLMs, have been working in medical colleges, district hospitals, model hospitals, primary health centers, state dispensaries, and sub-health centers for nearly two decades on a fixed pay basis, despite providing essential healthcare services.
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Even though NHM technical staff and officers perform duties equivalent to those of their permanent counterparts, they receive significantly lower salaries. Many of these contractual employees face job insecurity as they approach the upper age limit for employment without being regularized. While the state’s public health services rely heavily on NHM workers, the Assam government has yet to take concrete steps to address their long-pending burning issues. In contrast, several other states like Delhi, Haryana, Odisha, Manipur, Bihar, and Jharkhand have regularized NHM workers or provided equal pay and benefits.
On January 20, NHM workers submitted a memorandum to the chief minister through the commissioners of all districts, but no response has been received so far. Expressing their dissatisfaction, pharmacist Mofidul Islam stated that apart from emergency medical services, they had withdrawn from all other duties during the strike.
Islam further raised demands such as the recruitment of NHM workers into permanent positions in the health department through special appointment procedures, priority for NHM workers in new medical colleges and hospitals, implementation of a pay scale system until job regularization, wage security, payment of pending salaries as per the 7th Pay Commission (2016), full execution of the 2021 Gazette Notification (No. HLA.409/2020/Pt/55), and provision of gratuity, pension, death benefits, leave policies, health insurance, and bank loan facilities. Additionally, he demanded equal pay for equal work as per the Supreme Court verdict (Verdict no. 213 of 2013).
During the protest, NHM contractual workers held placards reading slogans like “Our demands are justified, they must be fulfilled,” “Don’t betray COVID warriors,” and “Regularize NHM contractual employees.”
