[Bengia Ajum]
ITANAGAR, 11 Jun: Employees working under the National Health Mission (NHM) are facing multiple challenges, including lack of job security, delays in salary disbursement, a slow regularisation process for technical employees, and a complete halt in the regularisation of non-technical employees.
The situation has been further compounded by the fact that NHM employees have not received their salaries for the past two months.
A total of 3,337 employees are currently working under the NHM in Arunachal Pradesh, including around 1,300 non-technical employees. Technical staffers include general duty medical officers, nursing officers, ANMs, lab assistants, and others, while non-technical staffers include district programme officers, data managers, accountants, community mobilisers, and similar personnel.
NHM employees are widely regarded as the backbone of the public healthcare system in Arunachal, providing essential healthcare services across the state. However, despite their critical role, many employees feel neglected by the government.
The Government of India launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) on 12 April, 2005,during the tenure of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. Initially, it was launched in 18 states across the country. Under the banner of the Arunachal Pradesh NHM Employees’ Association, the employees have submitted several representations to the state government and have also met union minister Kiren Rijiju, seeking redressal of their grievances. However, their pleas have yet to yield any concrete results.
In the past, NHM employees, under the banner of the Arunachal Pradesh NHM Employees’ Association, were compelled to go on pen-down strikes, demanding the release of pending salaries. With little improvement in the situation, employees have once again urged the government to address their grievances with a humane approach.
“We continue to work on a contractual basis with limited job security. We constantly fear termination at any time without the protection enjoyed by regular government employees. How long can we continue working under such stressful conditions?” said an NHM staff member.
The delay in salary disbursement has become a recurring issue, often causing severe financial hardship for the employees.
“Salary delays leave us struggling to pay home and vehicle loan EMIs, children’s school fees, household expenses, and emergency medical costs. We are already underpaid, and delayed salaries make life even more difficult,” the staff member added.
Although the Health Department has initiated the regularisation of technical staffers in a phased manner, employees allege that the process is moving at a very slow pace.
“While some technical staffers have been regularised in phases, the process has been lengthy and sluggish. On the other hand, non-technical employees have not been regularised at all,” another employee said.
Some employees who have been serving since 2005, when the NHM was first launched in the state, are yet to be regularised despite nearly two decades of service.
“In states like Sikkim and Manipur, efforts have been made to regularise both technical and non-technical staff. The Arunachal Pradesh government should study those models and consider implementing similar measures here,” said an employee.
The Arunachal Pradesh NHM Employees’ Association has called for a permanent solution to its long-pending issues.
“First, salaries should be credited on the first day of every month. Second, employees who have served for many years should be absorbed into regular government service. Third, the government should consider introducing a comprehensive service benefit scheme (CSBS) for non-technical contractual employees under the NHM. Lastly, a clear policy should be formulated to ensure the protection of long-serving contractual employees,” the association demanded.