A month after increasing routine and recurring incentives from Rs 1,000 per month to Rs 2,000 per month to benefit 10,22,265 ASHA workers, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday greenlighted raise in supervisory visit charges for ASHA Facilitators from Rs 250 to Rs 300 per visit from October onwards.

With the proposed increase, accredited social health activists (ASHA) facilitators will now receive about Rs 6,000 against Rs 5,000 per month for 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The move will benefit 41,405 ASHA facilitators.

“I am heartily thankful to Hon. PM Shri @narendramodi ji for #CabinetDecision on enhancing supervisory visit charges of ASHA Facilitators. This will enthuse & motivate them as Government implements #AyushmanBharat. Hon PM had also spoken to our Asha workers directly through VC (sic),” Union Health Minister JP Nadda said on Twitter.

The benefits which were extended by the earlier Cabinet decision in September included coverage of 10,63,670 ASHAs and ASHA facilitators under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, a Government statement said.

The incentives also included increasing their routine and recurring incentives as well as hiking the honorarium for nearly 27,00,000 anganwadi workers and anganwadi helpers, it said.

As part of the support mechanism, an ASHA facilitator usually mentors and monitors the performance of 10 to 25 ASHAs. She is a critical link of the support structure network, the official statement stated.

Substantial progress has been made by States in setting up support structures during the last three years, as states have increasingly become cognisant of the correlation between strong support structures and an effective ASHA programme, it said.

The ASHA facilitators are generally selected from amongst the ASHAs themselves.

All States except Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, West Bengal, Rajasthan and the Union Territories have selected ASHA facilitators, the statement added.

In yet another major decision related to the health sector, the Cabinet also cleared a proposal to create one post of Director in the basic pay of Rs 2,25,000/(fixed) plus NPA for new AIIMS at Rae Bareli (Uttar Pradesh), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Bathinda (Punjab), Guwahati (Assam), Bilaspur (Himachal Pradesh) and Deoghar (Jharkhand).