Lauding the efforts of frontline health workers in villages, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said ASHAs [Accredited Social Health Activists], ANMs [Auxiliary Nurse Midwives], anganwadi workers and health workers in village dispensaries are strong pillars of the country’s healthcare sector. “I admire them, I appreciate them,” said PM Modi in a video conference today June 18.
Commenting over the free COVID vaccination starting June 21, he said this workforce will also give new strength to it.
Meanwhile, PM Modi launched six crash course programmes to train and upskill around 100,000 frontline workers to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He urged people to remain cautious, stressing that the virus is ‘still amongst us’ and the possibility of it mutating is also there.
“To further enhance the preparedness of the country to meet the challenges ahead, a massive campaign to prepare about one lakh frontline ‘corona warriors’ is being started in the country,” he said.
The training will be imparted to them in six customised job roles namely home care support, basic care support, advanced care support, emergency care support, sample collection support, and medical equipment support.
Under the Skill India programme, 111 centres have been started across the country from today. “With this, we will have more than one lakh new skilled healthcare frontline workers in the next few months,” said PM Modi.
The course has been designed as a special programme under the central component of the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 3.0, with total financial outlay of Rs 276 crore [Rs 2,760 million].
Last month, PM Modi directed officials to empower ASHA & anganwadi workers with all necessary tools and boost healthcare resources in villages by focusing on door-to-door testing.
Meanwhile, ASHA workers across several states have been protesting and demanding proper safety gear, COVID duty incentive and their rightful remuneration. In the second wave of the pandemic, they got additional duties of door to door screening of villagers for the COVID19 symptoms and distribution of medical kits. However, they complain, they neither received any safety gear nor the incentive that was promised to them by the government.
