KOZHIKODE: “Our service is more important now. Backing off in the fear of getting Covid-19 is not apt at the moment,” said Usha M, an ASHA worker at Kuruvatur panchayat here.
Although her husband, a daily wage worker, has been jobless since the lockdown, Usha decided to go ahead with her duties, as she knows there are several people who await her service. Since the lockdown, Usha has been busy with door-to-door surveys, tracking migrant labourers and educating them.
She also has to care for quarantined people in the Covid Care Centre under her panchayat. “I have been working as an ASHA worker for 11 years. I have never become tired of the job,” she said. “Every day, I step out of my house with the fear of getting infected, as the working hours are more now and we are more exposed to the virus. We visit more than 20 houses a day,” she said. Usha is a lead artist in the Shingarimelam troupe of women in her panchayat. Besides Usha, there are 26 ASHA workers in the civic body.