Health assistants' strike stops vaccinations in Sherpur

Guardians in Sherpur’s Nalitabari upazila are deeply worried as health assistants have launched an indefinite work stoppage, completely halting all ongoing vaccination programmes for children, including the crucial typhoid vaccination drive.

This strike, part of a nationwide initiative, entered its fifth day on Sunday, with workers protesting at the Upazila Health Complex premises from 9 AM to 2:30 PM.

The health assistants are pressing for the realisation of their six-point demands, which encompass amending recruitment rules, raising the educational qualification to a graduate degree or equivalent, granting a 14th-grade pay scale, resolving salary disparities and providing their posts with technical status.

The indefinite strike began on Wednesday (October 1). Organised under the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association, the workers had previously submitted a memorandum to the Director General of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) on September 28, announcing the industrial action.

The national strike is severely impacting public health services, with 15,000 out of 120,000 outreach EPI centres currently closed daily, meaning approximately 1,50,000 mothers and children are being deprived of essential vaccinations.

Furthermore, the vital typhoid vaccination programme, scheduled to start on October 12 and targeting around 5 crore children and adolescents, is now under threat.

Health Assistant leaders, including Nalitabari Upazila Health Assistant Golam Kibria, have said that they are no longer satisfied with mere assurances from authorities.

They have vowed, "Not a single health assistant will return to work until our six-point demands are met," which also include upgrading the grade to the 11th grade through in-service diploma training and providing the next higher grade consecutively for promotion.

Other attendees included A K M Kamruzzaman, Md Masudur Rahman, Mahfuzur Rahman, Humayun Kabir, Hossain Ali, Hasanuzzaman Lavlu and Mahmudul Hasan Mithu.

MS/NSA