The recent global recognition for India’s Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) should be used as an opportunity to tackle the challenges in the programme. Elaborate (200 Words)
Refer - The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· India’s one million Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) volunteers have received arguably the biggest international recognition in form of the World Health Organization’s Global Health Leaders Awards 2022.
· It is important to note that even before the COVID-19 pandemic, ASHAs have made extraordinary contributions towards enabling increased access to primary health-care services.
· India launched the ASHA programme in 2005-06 as part of the National Rural Health Mission. Initially rolled out in rural areas, with the launch of the National Urban Health Mission in 2013, it was extended to urban settings as well.
· The core of the ASHA programme has been an intention to build the capacity of community members in taking care of their own health and being partners in health services.
· Considering the extensive shortage of staff in the workforce at all levels, and more so in the primary health-care system in India, and an ongoing need for functions being undertaken by ASHAs, it is a policy option that is worth serious consideration.
· Alongside, there is a need to acknowledge that the specific functions at the village level, which ASHAs play, may not be ideally suited for a permanent position. However, finding a middle path would not be very difficult either.
