Cabinet approves increase in supervisory visit charges for ASHA Facilitators

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Wednesday approved an increase in supervisory visit charges for ASHA facilitators from Rs 250 to Rs 300 per visit from October onwards, an official statement said.

With the proposed increase, accredited social health activists (ASHA) facilitators will now receive about Rs 6,000 against Rs 5,000 per month for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.

The move is aimed at motivating the workers to perform better and will benefit 41,405 ASHA facilitators, it said.

"I am heartily thankful to Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi ji for #CabinetDecision on enhancing supervisory visit charges of ASHA Facilitators. This will enthuse & motivate them as Government implements #AyushmanBharat. Hon PM had also spoken to our Asha workers directly through VC (sic)," Union Health Minister J P Nadda said on Twitter.

The existing institutional mechanism for the National Health Mission (NHM) will be utilised to implement the decision as part of the ASHA Benefit Package approved in September.

The benefits which were extended by the earlier cabinet decision in September included coverage of 10,63,670 ASHAs and ASHA facilitators under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, the statement said.

The incentives also included increasing their routine and recurring incentives as well as hiking the honorarium for nearly 27,00,000 anganwadi workers and anganwadi helpers, it said.

As part of the support mechanism, an ASHA facilitator usually mentors and monitors the performance of 10 to 25 ASHAs. She is a critical link of the support structure network, the official statement stated.

Substantial progress has been made by states in setting up support structures during the last three years, as states have increasingly become cognisant of the correlation between strong support structures and an effective ASHA programme, it said.

The ASHA facilitators are generally selected from amongst the ASHAs themselves.

All states except Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and the Union Territories have selected ASHA facilitators, the statement added.