Health assistants go on indefinite strike with six-pt demand

Health assistants across the country on Wednesday went on an indefinite strike with a six-point demand including revision of employment rules, elimination of salary discrimination and provision of technical ranks.

Under the banner of the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association, they had earlier announced the strike by submitting a memorandum to the Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on September 28.

As a result of the health assistants' strike, vaccination remains suspended at 15,000 centres out of the 120,000 outreach EPI vaccination centres across the country every day, depriving about 150,000 mothers and children of the service, according to a statement of the association.

In addition, the typhoid vaccination programme scheduled to begin on October 12 will also face uncertainty due to the strike.

This could deprive about 50 million children and adolescents of vaccination, the statement added.

Leaders of the health assistants' association claimed that 26,000 health assistants, assistant health inspectors and health inspectors across the country are repeatedly listening to the authorities' words of hope.

"Not a single health assistant will return to work until the six-point demand is implemented," reads the statement.

In the memorandum submitted to the DG of DGHS, demands have been raised for amending the recruitment rules, making the educational qualification a graduation or equivalent, granting the 14th grade, promotion to the 11th grade through in-service diploma training, granting technical ranks, and consistently giving the next higher grade in the case of promotion.

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