The seventh West Bengal State conference of AIPWA (2006) decided that to solve the long-standing problem of our very weak mass base, we should pay special attention to unorganised working women. Accordingly, I started organising the mid- day meal workers and ASHAs in Polba-Dadpur area of Hooghly district. Group meetings, at first combined ones involving both ASHA and mid-day meal workers and then held separately, became the platform for formulating demands and charting the course of advance. Since then and to this day, the two separate streams have developed together, united in a strong bond of solidarity under the banner of the women’s association.

Gradually we realised that the work is more of a trade union nature and went in for formation of a district level union. We did not opt for a state-level union because we had hardly any work in other districts of the state. Demonstrations and deputations – under the AIPWA banner to start with and then under the union banner – at BDOs, the DM, the CMOH etc with regular follow-up actions enabled us to solve some local problems like non/late- payment of dues and other harassments. On 29 July a more than 700 strong demonstration and deputation at the office of the Health Secretary, Government of West Bengal, was organised in Kolkata, with some 600 participants from our district and the rest from West Medinipur and North 24 Parganas districts.

Unfortunately we could not attend the 5th September Delhi rally, mainly because many of the activists were undergoing training. However, block level demonstrations and deputations are going on to address burning local grievances as well as the overall demands. In addition to ASHAs, some other forces – such as a few disgruntled CPI (M) elements, vaccine carriers (male) attached to the Health Department and willing to form a union – are also approaching us.

The health workers are more articulate, having at least secondary level education; and quite sensitive about their rights and dignity. Compared to the mid-day meal workers, they are objectively more organised among themselves. During the initial training period, some 300 to 400 of them stay together in the training centre (I utilised this opportunity by secretly meeting them there) and later serve in sub-primary health centres in groups of 6 to 20 or so. They meet together at the panchayat office every second and fourth Saturday to discuss the progress and problems of work with block- level health officials. Moreover, they are relatively young and belong to the same age group (25 – 40).

Thanks to these positive features, I did not find it difficult to locate panchayat level organizers-in-the making and by networking them through mobile phones (most of them have one) it was possible to take prompt initiatives. Of course, I also meet them in groups. No AICCTU organizer is associated with the day-to-day work, although political help and guidance from AICCTU state leadership is always forthcoming since union formation.
We are yet to match the agitational activities with adequate attention to political education and party building. This should be taken care of mainly at village levels, but we are yet to put in place a proper mechanism for that. Moreover, ASHA contacts are coming also from areas where we have no party presence.

We are also facing opposition from others and there will be more of it in the days to come. There is a continuous warning from the Trinamul Congress to health workers: ‘you can go with the union only so long as it is not red’! The TMC is also trying to attract our forces. ‘Come to us’, they say, ‘Didi will solve your problems’. The CPI (M) is not totally inactive either and we have a potential contender in the SUCI-led state level ASHA union. So far we have been able to thwart such political pulls and pressures through lively political discussions as and when the issues/questions emerged. But unless we fill up the gaps mentioned above and spread our work by involving more cadres, a setback is not precluded.

My experience tells me that alongside the trade union, the women’s organisation too has a lot to do here. ASHAs routinely encounter misbehavior during field work and in hospitals. Usually their husbands and in-laws accept the job as such because it earns some money for the family, but they often try and control her movements, especially on holidays and after nightfall, complaining that household duties are getting neglected. At the moment the “head of the family” in most cases support the wife’s involvement in union activities, but I’m afraid the situation may change once it appears that no major financial benefit is forthcoming. Unless they are educated to fight such patriarchal bondage at home and oppression outside, their activism is bound to suffer. However, the more important fact, the principal aspect of the scenario, is the palpable rise in the democratic consciousness and assertiveness of these health workers, which make them a major force of women’s movement and therefore an important constituency of AIPWA.

To tap the potential inherent in this sector and to develop organisers and party members, we have plans to hold classes on the two papers of last year’s political literacy campaign (on (A) women’s movement and (B) revolution and party) and also on trade union issues. The challenges are tough, but if we tackle them collectively, the prospects are very bright indeed.

Chaitali Sen (West Bengal state secretary, AIPWA)