Punjab to appoint 15,000 health activists
Chandigarh: Under the National Rural Health Mission Scheme, 15,000 accredited social health activists (ASHAs) will be appointed by the Health Department in the state to look after pregnant women, educate women on diseases and advise them on the care of newborns in rural areas.
The ASHAs will also handle other health issues like sanitation and distribution of free-of-cost medicines to be provided by the department etc.
Besides this, the state government has also given the work of selection of 147 specialist doctors to the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) to appoint them in government hospitals in April this year. Shortage of doctors, especially in the Malwa-belt, will end on priority in April.
Punjab health minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla stated this at a function here today held to distribute appointment letters among ASHAs of Sangrur and Barnala districts. Appointment letters were given today to 552 ASHAs of Sangrur district and 406 of Barnala district.
The minister said the ASHAs would not be given salary or allowance, but honorarium for the work to be done by them as per the guidelines of the programme. She also said every ASHA would get the name of every pregnant woman registered in her area, and if the child died before birth, she would have to give answer about it. Thus, it would help check female foeticide, she added.
On female foeticide she said if dowry was done away with from society, daughters would not be killed in wombs.
She asked people to discourage female foeticide as it was also crime against humanity. She called upon the gathering to fight drug abuse, female foeticide and adulteration of foodstuff.
Secretary, Health, T.R. Sarangal, Sangrur civil surgeon Satwant Bhalla, district president of the BJP Jatinder Kalra and area in charge of the SAD of the Sangrur Assembly constituency Parkash Chand Garg also were among
the speakers.
