NHM women protesters remain undeterred

Vikas Sharma

Tribune News Service

Jammu, January 18

For the past 28 days, women National Health Mission (NHM) employees have shown grit. They have been managing the daily chores at home and also participating in the ongoing strike launched by the NHM employees.

The women employees are unperturbed even after use of force by the police and are determined to fight for the demand of regularisation of their services.

While talking to The Tribune, protesting women NHM employees said they were determined to achieve their right of regularisation which had allegedly been denied to them by the state government.

According to the All J&K NHM Employees Association, Jammu division, there are around 8,402 NHM employees in the region, which includes doctors, paramedics and laboratory technicians. The women employees constitute 70 per cent of the total NHM employees in the Jammu region.

“The government is adamant on not giving us our rights, but we will fight for our cause. For women employees, it is not easy. Before coming to the protest in the morning every day, we have to look after our families. Despite facing hardships, many protesting women employees bring their young children along as they cannot leave them alone at home,” said Dr Nazish, one of the protesters.

Another protesting employee, Dr Snober, claimed that many women employees had become overage for other government jobs. “We performed our duties with dedication in remote areas where other staff hesitated to go. Despite being paid low, we worked hard. We even put our lives at risk by performing night duties in the health centres situated in far-flung areas,” Snober said.

One more protesting doctor, Dr Sushma, said: “Last year, I was returning home after performing duty at Community Health Centre, RS Pura, when some unknown persons misbehaved with me and also snatched my gold chain. Is this the reward we are getting from the government after doing our duties at such places where even men hesitate to go.”

“We delivered the results which were expected from us. Then why is the government not paying attention to our demand of regularisation,” Dr Tamanna said.