PESHAWAR: Several lady health workers on Monday were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital after they fainted during a sit-in near the provincial assembly building against non-payment of salary over the last three months.

They were shifted to the Lady Reading Hospital, where they received emergency care.

Doctors said LHWs fainted due to hot and humid weather.

Holding banners and placards and shouting slogans against the government, they insisted the government wasn’t sincere about resolving their problem.

Disperse after minister promises early corrective measure

The protesters said they had long been protesting non-payment of salary but the government had yet to take the matter seriously.

They later dispersed after a government representative assured them of early resolution of the matter.

He also said the chief minister would meet representatives of LHWs today (Tuesday).

Also in the day, scores of LHWs demonstrated near the press club to protest non-payment of salary and the government’s apathy towards their misery.

They said they performed the basic role in healthcare system at the community level but the government didn’t recognise their services.

They said payment of salary to them had been delayed since 2012 though they worked diligently.

“More than 13,000 LHWs have been providing vaccination, contraceptive services and primary healthcare to women and children in all districts of the province,” a protester said.

She said the federal government had pledged to provide funds for payment of salary to LHWs until 2017 after workers were put at the disposal of the provincial government in 2012 due to their programme’s de-centralisation in line with the 18th Constitutional Amendment.

The LHWs said they’re poor women and performed a tough job for meagre salary but even then, salary was denied to them.

They said they would continue protest until their demand was met.

According to them, they’ve have helped improve health indicators in the designated areas but even then, the government is unwilling to deal with them on a par with its other employees.

LHWs said they played a primary role in the immunisation of children in areas, where male vaccinators had failed to reach the targeted children.

They refused to listen to a health official, who had shown up to pacify them.

However, they agreed to disperse peacefully only after information minister Mushtaq Ghani reached there and assured them of early corrective step on the delay in payment of salary.

He said he would arrange a meeting of the LHWs’ representatives with the chief minister Tuesday (today) on the issue.

The protest suspended traffic on Grand Trunk Road for few hours.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2015

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