Srinagar, Sep 9,: Employees working under the National Health Mission (NHM) across Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday began a 72-hour strike over long-pending demands including a comprehensive job policy, salary revision, social security and retirement benefits.
The strike, called by the UT-level Joint Coordination Committee of NHM employees, covers personnel working at district, block and field levels, including employees associated with the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme and other NHM schemes. The employees’ association said the strike is being observed across Jammu and Kashmir after its September 5 deadline to the administration passed without what it described as a concrete response or tangible action.
The employees are seeking a policy providing job security, revision of salaries, retirement and social-security benefits, extension of EPF coverage, payment parity and other service-related benefits. The association has said more than 12,000 NHM employees are working across the Union Territory.
The latest strike follows a 48-hour agitation held by NHM employees across J&K in April over similar demands. That strike was called off on April 2 after representatives met Health Minister Sakina Itoo, with the government assuring the employees that their grievances would be examined and addressed.
The renewed agitation comes against the backdrop of a March 17 reply by the Union Health Ministry in the Rajya Sabha on the regularization of NHM employees in J&K. In response to a question by MP Sajjad Ahmad Kichloo, the Ministry said public health and hospitals are State subjects and that matters relating to NHM human-resource policy, including pay parity, regularization and absorption, are decided by the respective State or Union Territory governments.
The same parliamentary reply said the Union Government provides need-based technical and financial support to States and Union Territories under NHM, while the respective administrations are responsible for ensuring healthcare human resources and creating regular posts in accordance with applicable standards.
The protesting employees told the news agency Kashmir News Trust that they have been serving under NHM for nearly 18 years without a comprehensive regularization or job-security framework. The association raised the issue again in January, saying more than 12,000 employees remained without regularization, service benefits and social-security safeguards.
A separate NHM employees’ grouping has also issued a fresh deadline to the government, warning of another Union Territory-wide strike from September 18 if its demands are not addressed by September 17.
The present 72-hour strike therefore comes five months after the previous strike and amid continuing demands for a policy decision on the employment status, remuneration and social-security protection of NHM personnel in Jammu and Kashmir. [KNT]
