Tablet PCs for Asha workers

Impressed with the efforts of Accredited Social Heath Activists — the front-line health workers — the Union health ministry is considering equipping them all with a tablet PC. Union health minister J.P. Nadda, who has been praising the efforts of Ashas in the healthcare sector at various platforms, is also set to award some of these Ashas workers soon for their outstanding performance.

There are about 9,00,000 Asha workers who act as a link worker between the community and health system and bring about awareness in them. The minister will soon be writing to the states for providing them with better incentives to improve their working conditions. In order to further boost them, their efforts will be recognised with the best Asha workers being rewarded by the health minister soon.

According to sources, the Ashas will also be given tablets. The initiative gains significance as according to the official, this will not only make their work easy but will also provide access to real time data collection. “The data collection through household surveys need huge investment and human resources. When data is collected using paper-based formats, the quality of the data suffers. A lot of time is also lost in transferring data. The proposal of giving tablets makes sense and will improve the quality of data,” said a senior official in the ministry.

These tablets will have an inbuilt GPS tracking system which will further help in getting accurate entries even from far-flung areas.

Earlier, the minister had also reached out to Asha workers seeking their contribution in the newly-launched Mission Indradhanush — the health ministry’s flagship programme to vaccinate all partially and unimmunised children. Lauding the efforts of Asha workers in polio eradication in the country in his letter to “Asha behans,” the minister had asked them for their support in identifying, tracking, vaccinating all partially and unimmunised children.

The minister has been quite vocal about the contribution of Asha workers. In fact recently, even megastar Amitabh Bachchan admired the efforts of Asha workers and proposed meeting them to further give them a boost.