Grassroots health workers were instrumental in taking Covid-19 care to the bottom of the pyramid, but like Kullu, they remain overworked and underpaid
ASHA Worker Matilda Kullu
Every morning, Matilda Kullu, 45, starts her day at 5, finishing household chores, preparing lunch for the family of four and feeding the cattle before hopping on to her cycle to start her day with door-to-door visits. Fifteen years ago, Kullu was appointed as an Accredited Social Health Activist (Asha) for Gargadbahal village, in Baragaon tehsil of Odisha’s Sundargarh district. Kullu, who hails from the same village, looks after 964 people, mostly tribal, and is well aware of their health records.
In 2005, the government launched the National Rural Health Mission and recruited these workers to connect vulnerable communities to health care. There are over a million such workers in India.
(This story appears in the 03 December, 2021 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)