[In Part One of this article, we examined the restrictions in extending Rs.50 lakh compensation to the next of kin of Covid-19 frontline warriors who died after contracting Covid-19 while on duty. In this second and concluding part, we will try to summarize the first-person accounts of some women health workers—mainly nurses and ASHA workers—on the extreme exploitative working conditions they had to endure while waging the war against Covid-19]
https://countercurrents.org/2022/08/women-frontline-warriors-and-covid-19-part-two/
The pay-scale for a Central Government Health Service nurse begins at Rs.46,000 per month. Nurses in many private hospitals and nursing homes are paid an average of Rs.7000—8000. Only some experienced nurses in some hospitals earn Rs.10,000—12,000. This despite the government fixing the salary for private sector nurses at Rs.20,000.
The Trained Nurses Association of India, which represents over three lakh private sector nurses, moved the Supreme Court in 2011 on the highly exploitative conditions prevailing in the private hospitals. After hearing the plight of the private sector nurses for nearly five long years, on 29 January 2016, the apex court directed the Union Health Ministry to set up a committee to look into the working conditions of nurses in the private sector. The Ministry was thus forced to appoint a committee under Dr.Jagdish Prasad, the then Director General of Health Services. After enquiring about the condition of private hospital nurses in several States, the committee came up with a report with a scathing observation that the working conditions and pay of nurses in private hospitals were really pathetic. It found that “adequate salary and basic facilities are not provided to nurses in private hospitals and nursing homes”
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by B Sivaraman
05/08/2022