The State Government’s scooty felicitation to best Sahiyas in September 2014 is not a pleasure for the awardees. Till date, the delivery of scooties is pending. Moreover, there is no provision for scooty’s petrol expenses from the Government. As a result, the Sahiyas are worried since their regular payment is delayed and given after months.
lohardaga-based Sahiya Rekha Devi said, “We hail from a rural background where our health services involve child delivery, vaccination, health camps and survey. We are paid a nominal amount of Rs 100 to Rs 300 for these services. In such scenario, it is difficult to contribute to the family. Payments from the health department are often given after one or two months.”
Similarly, Koderma’s Madhuri Kumari pointed on the need of a sanctioned monthly salary instead of gifting a scooty. “The government did not allow us to take the gifted scooty. Rather, the concerned officials instructed to deposit the photocopy of license to the senior district health officer at the earliest. We are devoid of monthly salary despite working for 24 hours. The commission fixed for every service is not given on time. It becomes a trouble,” added Kumari.
Officials seem to neglect government’s order. Kumari said licence copy is not being collected by authorized district officer. Most of the Sahiyas had to pay Rs 2500 for a driving licence to a private agency. Sahiya Sapna Devi of Chatra was hopeless of getting the scooty. “We are already undergoing payment hassles. The delivery of scooty is awaited since October. It is a challenge to serve distant patients without any private vehicle,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand Rural Health Mission Society (JRHMS) is concerned for the vehicle licence prepared by the Sahiyas on their own effort. “We have received the scooties around one week back. They will be provided to Sahiyas who have submitted us a copy of learner’s licence. As of now, we are planning to fix the date of scooty distribution which is to be finalized within two weeks,” said JRHMS State Programme Coordinator Akay Minz.
According to Minz, the pollution certificate, registration certificate and insurance certificate of the scooty has been done by the government. As of now, the date of distributing the much awaited scooties to the Sahiya is undecided. JRHMS officials have forwarded the file to Mission Director Ashish Singhmar. Sources maintained scooties will be given by the end of the ongoing financial year 2014-15 which concludes in March.
JRHMS will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the awardees. A Sahiya will have to return the scooty if she quits from health service responsibilities as per the MoU. Also, they will have to ensure that the scooty is used exclusively for health services. Notably, Former Health Minister Rajendra Prasad Singh had gifted scooty to the best Sahiya of each district at Institute of Public Health, Namkom for their outstanding performance on September 30. It was a first -of-its kind initiative across India. But, government failed to deliver the scooties on technical reasons.