Agitating ASHA staff minimize their hair in a symbolic protest towards the Kerala authorities outdoors the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram as their agitation entered the fiftieth day on Monday (March 31, 2025)
| Picture Credit score: Nirmal Harindran

Dozens of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) intensified their protest outside the Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday (March 31, 2025), chopping their hair and a few shaving their heads in an emotional gesture of defiance towards the Kerala authorities’s alleged indifference to their calls for.

The protest escalated into its fiftieth day on Monday, with demonstrators intensifying their agitation outdoors the executive hub, marking a brand new section of their extended marketing campaign.

Emotional scenes unfolded when a number of ASHA staff from throughout the districts converged on the protest venue within the morning and minimize their hair en masse, elevating slogans towards the federal government.

In a show of desperation, one protester was overcome with emotion, breaking down in tears earlier than taking the intense step of shaving her head fully.

“It is our lives which might be being minimize. That is our protest towards the ministers who flip a blind eye to our ache and issues. How are we presupposed to survive on a meagre ₹232 a day?” the girl stated, weeping and clutching the severed hair strands in her hand.

If the federal government refused to fulfill their calls for, all of the protesters would die right here itself, she stated.

“Now we have been staging our protest, battling scorching warmth and rain, for the final 50 days. The federal government has not bothered to look after us,” she alleged.

Mini S., one of many leaders who led the stir, stated they had been compelled to chop the hair to specific their sturdy protest towards the federal government.

“None of our calls for has been thought-about empathetically by the federal government. We’re not protesting emotionally… it is our sturdy protest. Our protest will likely be unfold throughout the state,” she instructed the media.

The protesters later held the minimize hair strands of their arms and took out a protest march by the busy MG Street.

Related hair-cutting demonstrations had been held in Alappuzha and Angamaly additionally.

Males specific solidarity

Some males additionally shaved their heads, expressing solidarity with the protesting ASHA staff.

An indefinite starvation strike of the agitators was additionally progressing on the protest venue for the final week.

A bit of ASHA staff has been protesting outdoors the Secretariat right here for the final a number of weeks elevating numerous calls for, together with post-retirement advantages and a rise in honorarium.

The Left authorities in Kerala made it clear that such a steep hike in honorarium just isn’t virtually doable and stated it was the duty of the Centre to handle the calls for of the ASHA staff.

In keeping with the federal government, it has not obtained any money grant from the central authorities underneath the Nationwide Well being Mission (NHM) for 2023-24 for cost in direction of numerous Centrally sponsored schemes, together with ASHA.

The Central authorities has, nevertheless, rejected the State’s claims and contended that it has given what was due, however the utilisation certificates didn’t come from Kerala.

It stated that after the certificates comes, the requisite quantity can be given to the ASHA staff and the state.

Union Well being Minister J.P. Nadda had additionally introduced in Parliament that the Mission Steering Group of the NHM has determined to lift the incentives for ASHA staff.