Sindh lady health workers warn of province-wide protests over budget cut

KARACHI: Representatives of Sindh’s lady health workers have warned of protests across the province if the government does not reverse what they described as a 75 per cent reduction in the operational budget of the lady health workers programme and increase financial support for it.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday, leaders of the All Lady Health Workers Programme Union said the first demonstration would be staged in Karachi next week. Union chairperson Bushra Arian, accompanied by colleagues, said the budget reduction amounted to an attempt to shut down a programme launched more than three decades ago by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

She said the programme was not just another government scheme but part of Benazir Bhutto’s vision to deliver healthcare services at people’s doorsteps. She also accused the Pakistan Peoples Party-led provincial government of moving towards the closure of an initiative started by its own late leader and said workers would resist the move.

“We won’t let this happen. It’s not another government programme but rather Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s vision that, for the first time in the country’s history, led to bringing healthcare services at the doorstep of the masses,” she said.

Union raises concerns over funding and structure

Highlighting the workers’ complaints, Ms Arian said the government had first slashed the programme’s budget by 75pc and had then shifted the funds to a private company. According to her, the company’s governing board has not yet been formed.

She said the budget cut had left lady health workers without essential health kits and medicines, while supervisors no longer had fuel for transport. She added that administrative oversight had been severely affected and that the remaining funds were barely sufficient to cover salaries.

Ms Arian also said the historic name of the lady health workers programme had been removed from the budget document. She said the steps being taken, including changes in the organogram, suggested that the programme was gradually being outsourced or privatised.

Reference to court order and earlier commitments

The union chairperson said these measures ran contrary to the Supreme Court’s 2013 order under which more than 105,000 lady health workers were regularised across the province. She also said the moves went against assurances given by the government last year after sit-ins by the workers.

Warning of wider consequences, she said any end to the programme’s identity, structure or budget would affect not only employees but also poor communities in Sindh that depend on its services. She said the contribution of lady health workers had never been properly recognised by the provincial government despite the range of duties they performed.

Listing those responsibilities, Ms Arian said the workers remained active in the field in maternal and child healthcare, polio vaccination, family planning counselling and nutrition awareness. She added that they were also deployed in emergencies such as floods and worked in remote, high-risk areas.

Staffing shortages also highlighted

Ms Arian said lady health workers in Sindh had been denied upgradation and promotion, unlike their counterparts in Punjab who, she said, had been given Grade 16 positions. She described this as a violation of the programme’s original structure.

She further said the workforce in Sindh had declined from more than 24,000 to over 17,000 because no new appointments had been made for many years. According to her, around 60pc of the province currently has no lady health worker coverage. Activists Farhat Parveen and Mirza Maqsood also addressed the press conference.