 We have more than 9 lakh Asha workers in the country. They are considered as activists. They are not even counted as workers. And what happens is that they are not paid any fixed amount. They are paid incentives for every job they do. Now what is their work? They act as the link between the rural and urban poor and the government public health services. And they pay special attention to tracking of any kinds of epidemics or anything that takes place. There is one Asha worker for 1,000 members of the population. And in far off areas, tribal areas, it's a lesser number of population they have to look after. They go from door to door. They teach them good sanitation habits. They check out on the water supply. They look after the patients who have TB. And in fact, they give them the medicine, ensure that the dots is taken, all that. After the TB patient is fully cured, then it could take 6 months, 8 months, 10 months. They'll be paid 250 rupees. That's all. So they are paid very small incentives. It's like a peace rate. Like you have in factories. It's a peace rate for health work. Now this is such a crucial sector. And yet why do these women do this work? They're out from morning till night. They take the women for institutional checkups and deliveries. And in fact, because of their work, it has been acknowledged that they are the backbone of the National Health Mission. And without them, the mission could not be successful at all. They have increased the number of institutional deliveries by encouraging women to go there. They have decreased, had to decrease the infant mortality rate, the maternal mortality rate. But when they go even to the primary health center or the community health center, the regular employees there admit the patient and tell the women to go and stand outside under the 300 degrees temperature or in the cold. Because they're considered volunteers. They have no status. So where is they are actually offering the most valuable service to society? They are treated like this because it's considered that what they're doing is part of the care work which they do at home. It's part of the nurturing work they do at home. So just as that is unpaid labor, this is also considered as unpaid labor. However, we have been unionizing them for the past eight years now. And we have been quite successful in that in many states. They have managed to get the governments, the state governments, to give them a fixed amount apart from the incentives. Otherwise their earnings can be as low as 500 rupees a month and they come under a lot of pressure from the families that why are you spending out of your own pocket to take the patients either to the primary health center or the community health center. So they get a really rough deal but they are very, very courageous at all times of the night when they have to go for a delivery. Sometimes they're attacked by stray dogs and all. There's no leave for them. When they don't go to work, they don't get paid because it's all on an incentive basis. But some of the states like the state of Kerala where there's a left front government, they have committed. The government has assured they are going to pay them 7500 rupees a month as a fixed amount and apart from that they will get their incentives. They're already getting 2000 rupees a month but it will be increased. The government of Telangana after very long struggle, they have committed that they are going to give them 6000 rupees a month, which as incentives but they will ensure that they get that much every month. Now in Karnataka after a huge struggle, the state government will give them 3500 a fixed amount and the rest of it will come as incentives from the center. In that way in Bengal it's 2000 rupees fixed. In Haryana they had a wonderful struggle because there are about 20,000 Ashas out of whom about 8000 are unionized. And they went and they gher out the chief minister's house. He was forced to call them for discussions. When they went he said, I'm hungry so how can I give you anything? They went back to Haryana, they collected one dabbaa of atta from each household. They packed it up, they delivered it to the chief minister's office and said, we have collected for you because we don't want the chief minister to go hungry. After which he called them had discussions. They are now getting 2000 rupees a month is fixed along with higher incentives. Government of Tripura where we have a left front government. There the incentives they are getting from the center are being equally matched by the state. So they get double of what is being allocated by the center. Tripura is a small state with very poor funding but they're still committed to that because the work that these women do is invaluable in society especially because you know that our health budget is only about 1% of the GDP whereas WHO recommends that it should be 6%. And the problem is that the government like it is privatizing the defense sector, insurance, railways, other sectors. They're also privatizing the health services as a result of which every year already 5.5 crore poor people in our country go under the poverty line because they are forced to spend on private health services. And the government in various states is giving out the primary health centers to private organizations and corporates to run. The reason for this is that at the moment one of the highest profit making sectors is the health sector. And what should basically be a service for the people is being used as profit making. And health is something that if you're ill you will sell your house, you'll mortgage everything to get the services. And this is part of the pattern of our government where everything is for the big corporates and there is nothing for the poor. So the Asha workers are very, very militant. They are having struggles all over the country and as a result of that they've achieved something but we want them to be regularized as health workers. We want them to get a minimum wage of 18,000 rupees a month along with all social security benefits including pension. And that is why we are very much a part of this struggle, apart from the other struggles that we are carrying on independently.