HYDERABAD: Rangareddy and Medchal districts are reeling under an acute shortage of Accredited Social Health Activist (Asha) workers, making it extremely difficult for officials to put a lid on the rising number of Covid-19 cases. According to data, Medchal- Malkajgiri has barely 370 Asha workers and Rangareddy about 1,100, making it difficult for these foot soldiers to continue fighting the pandemic.
Asha workers are an army of health workers who support the local Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) staff by going door to door and conducting routine fever surveillance. They also help them conduct the Rapid Antigen Tests in containment zones. “We are seeing an extreme shortage of manpower. Rangareddy district has both an urban and local population to cater to. In the urban pockets, we have as few as 300-odd Asha workers for a population of 16 lakh citizens. Because of this, containment is a challenge. In rural areas. However, we have enough staff and containment is more effective,” a senior official of the Health Department said.
Rangareddy is spread across 5,031 sqkm and has a population of 24 lakh. In the case of Medchal- Makajgiri, the district has a population of 24 lakh, spread across a smaller area of 1,084 sqkm. It has only 370-380 Asha workers. “It has become extremely difficult to manage the situation because a handful of workers look after a large number of citizens,” Jayalaxmi, general secretary of the Asha Workers Union, said. Both these districts, with such large populations and vast area, have very few UPHCs.
While Medchal has 36, Rangareddy has 37. Hyderabad, on the other hand, with a population of 39 lakh spread across 217 sqkm, has 85 UPHCs and 1,000 Asha workers. This is why Raangareddy has had a persistently high Covid caseload — 4,540 cases in July, 4,017 in August and 2,805 in September. Medchal has seen 2,915 cases in July, 3,062 in August and 2,098 September. Officials in the two districts are now forced to draw staff from the TB Prevention, Non- Communicable Disease Prevention and Child Nutrition schemes to run the show.