ASHA Workers' Protest Is a Warning to the TMC in Poll-Bound West Bengal

“We would remember this during voting Didi (Mamata Banerjee). We would change the government if our demand is not met,” an ASHA worker warned from the prison van.

Joydeep Sarkar

“We would remember this during voting Didi (Mamata Banerjee). We would change the government if our demand is not met,” an ASHA worker warned from the prison van.

asha workers protest is a warning to the tmc in poll bound west bengal

ASHA' workers stage a protest as part of a gherao agitation against the state government outside Swasthya Bhawan, in Kolkata, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. Photo: PTI

Kolkata: In an election year, the worst optics for a government that sells itself on women-centric welfare is a street full of women workers being stopped, searched and met with barricading, but still refusing to go back.

That was Kolkata on Wednesday (January 21), when thousands of West Bengal’s ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist) workers surged towards the Swasthya Bhavan, demanding maternity leave, a fixed Rs 15,000 monthly honorarium, a Rs 5 lakh insurance cover and immediate clearance of long-pending dues.

The agitation, continuing as cease-work since December 23, turned into a day-long confrontation with the police, raising difficult questions not only about wages, but about the state’s dependence on scheme workers without securing their rights.

“We would remember this during voting Didi (Mamata Banerjee). We would show our power. We would change the government if our demand is not met,” warned an ASHA worker from the prison van.

Kolkata: 'ASHA' workers broke the barricade during a protest as part of a gherao agitation against the state government, in Kolkata, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. Photo: PTI

Even before Wednesday’s march began, ASHA workers alleged that the administration had attempted to choke off the mobilisation the night before. Union leaders claimed police harassment was reported from several districts as workers began travelling to Kolkata for the programme.

“There were attacks on trains and buses. Vehicles were stopped. Our people were harassed from the night before,” said Ismat Ara Khatun, state secretary of the West Bengal ASHA Workers’ Union.

Organisers alleged that police stopped multiple buses and several smaller vehicles carrying ASHA workers on their way to Kolkata. The government offered no detailed explanation beyond invoking “law and order” concerns to justify the widespread roadblocks. But the message was hard to miss.

By morning, the protest spilled across Kolkata. Police barricades were placed in layers and at several points iron sheets were laid across roads to block movement.

“This programme was fixed as per the health officials’ assurance. We did not expect such obstruction,” Khatun said.

Scuffles broke out through the day as police tried to hold protestors back. The union claimed around 20 women were injured, with two requiring medical treatment.

ASHA workers. Photo: By arrangement.

Minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya defended the government’s role suggesting politicisation of the protest.

“The government is aware of the matter. Their income has increased many times compared to the earlier government,” she said. “We are trying to see what more can be done. But it is also clear that politics is being played around this issue.”

However, despite the minister’s tall claims, the political risk for the Trinamool Congress isn’t limited to a wage dispute. ASHA workers sit at the heart of the state’s rural governance ecosystem. They are not merely beneficiaries of welfare politics. With the Anganwadi workers also protesting with similar demands, they are its delivery machinery, known personally in villages, trusted by mothers and embedded in everyday life. These workers have unmatched household access and everyday credibility across rural and semi-urban Bengal.

“From tracking expecting mothers to taking them for delivery, to newborn care. There is work of more than 12 hours every day. But salary and benefits are almost nothing,” said Sulata Mondal from Memari, Purba Bardhaman .

A confrontation with this workforce – around 66,000 ASHA workers and roughly 1.1 lakh Anganwadi workers in West Bengal – coupled with the images of police barricades, halted buses and restrictions on women scheme-workers, collides directly with the ruling party’s carefully cultivated women empowerment pitch.

Wednesday ended without a clear commitment on the key demand of a fixed honorarium. But it did end with a political warning the state can’t ignore.

Translated from Bengali to English by Aparna Bhattacharya.

This article went live on January twenty-second, two thousand twenty six, at zero minutes past four in the afternoon.

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