Healthcare heroes unpaid, babus rewarded

For 21 days, voices of Kerala's ASHA workers have echoed outside state secretariat -26,140 women demanding three months' unpaid wages and a raise from their paltry Rs 7,000 monthly honorarium. "Every payment comes after a strike," said S Mini, vice president of Kerala ASHA Health Workers' Association. "Sometimes, we wait eight months."

Their struggle is met not with sympathy but with delays and excuses. Yet, the working class stands with them. Auto-rickshaw drivers ferry them for free, voluntary groups provide food and water - support born from shared hardship.

Govt says it cannot raise ASHA wages, pleading financial distress. Though it professes empty coffers, it has found the means to more than double the salaries of Kerala's public service commission members. The chairman's salary has recently surged from Rs 76,450 to Rs 224,100 and members will now receive Rs 219,000 - up from Rs 70,290. Their rent and travel allowances have ballooned as well. The contrast is stark. ASHA workers - backbone of Kerala's public health system - must fight for survival, while bureaucrats see their fortunes swell. In the arithmetic of governance, some lives remain cheaper than others.

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