What is the full form of ASHA

ASHA: Accredited Social Health Activist.

ASHA Stands for Accredited Social Health Activists. ASHAs are women who have received training to serve as health educators and promoters in their neighbourhoods. They are referred to as health activists by the Indian MoHFW, who raise awareness of health and its social determinants and encourage local health planning, increased usage, and accountability of the available health services. Connecting underprivileged populations to the healthcare system is the goal of the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) program. In India, the goal was to establish an "ASHA in every village." Anbumani Ramadoss, India's health minister at the time, launched the initiative in 2005, and complete implementation was planned for 2012.

Roles And Responsibilities

1. Encouraging women to give birth in medical facilities,
2. Taking kids to vaccination clinics.
3. Promotion of family planning (e.g., surgical sterilization).
4. Using first aid to treat simple illnesses and injuries.
5. Keeping statistics on the population and enhancing village sanitation.
6. The healthcare system and rural populations can communicate effectively, thanks to ASHAs.
7. An ASHA serves as a depot holding for supplies that are made readily available to all habitations, such as oral rehydration salts (ORS) therapy, iron folic acid (IFA) tablets, chloroquine, disposable delivery kits (DDK), oral pills, and condoms.
8. Promotion of breastfeeding, skilled birth attendance, illness prevention, etc.
9. Health, nutrition, and other relevant government initiatives are included in the community's sensitization efforts.
10. Providing medications for conditions like malaria, tuberculosis, diarrhoea, ante- and postnatal care, institutional delivery, immunization, diabetes testing, family planning, etc.
11. Malaria diagnosis, a pregnancy survey, and an examination of health-related issues.
12. Involvement in community health and related activities, as well as planning for the health of the community.

Selection Criteria

1. Women who live in the village where they have been chosen to work as ASHAs and who are expected to stay there for the foreseeable future must make up the majority of their workforce.
2. Women who have already been married, widowed, or divorced are preferred over those who haven't since Indian cultural standards state that after getting married, a lady must go to her husband's village or house instead of staying on her own.
3. ASHAs are required to have completed up to the tenth grade, though this condition may be eased if no competent, literate candidate is available.
4. The ideal range for their age is between 25 and 45.
5. The gram panchayat chooses them and holds them responsible (local government).
6. She must be literate and have completed at least the tenth grade in formal education. In order to advance their careers, women in Class XII should be given preference if they are motivated and willing. This is because they may later be admitted to ANM/GNM schools.
7. It is important to maintain a balance between education and underrepresented group representation.
8. To be able to find the time to complete her tasks, she should have social and familial support.
9. To better serve underserved populations, it is important to guarantee enough representation from those groups.
10. ASHA should be able to connect with the community and have strong leadership abilities. She should also be fluent in the language of the region and population she is expected to serve.

Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) Benefit Package

1. Under the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, ASHAs and ASHA Facilitators would be covered (Life Insurance). The age range for eligibility is 18 to 70. Benefits include the following: Rs. 2 Lakh in the event of death due to an accident, coverage is for a year from June 1 to May 31.
2. 2 lakh in the event of the entire and permanent loss of both eyes, the loss of both hands or feet, or the loss of sight in one eye along with the loss of use of either one hand or one foot.
3. One lakh rupees in the event of complete and irreversible blindness in one eye or loss of use of one hand or one foot.
4. Instead of the existing Rs 1000 per month in rewards for routine chores, ASHAs would now receive a minimum of Rs 2000 per month. This will take effect in October 2018. Additionally, various task-based rewards have been approved at the central/state level.

Accessibility of ASHAs

Rural areas

A Community Health Worker, also known as an ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activist), is present in every town of 1000 inhabitants. Depending on the local circumstances as they relate to her recruitment, the States have the discretion to relax the population norms and the educational requirements on an individual basis.

Urbanized areas

• Prior to choosing an ASHA, it is crucial that the City/District Health Society conducts a vulnerability assessment of those residing in slums or conditions that are similar to slums and then identifies these "slum/vulnerable clusters" for the purpose of choosing an ASHA.
• One ASHA will typically be chosen in an urban region for every 1000-2500 residents. An ASHA can cover between 200 and 500 families because homes in urban settings are typically distributed across a fairly narrow geographic region, depending on the geographical consideration.
• Another ASHA may be enlisted when the population covered rises to more than 2500. When geographical scattering or dispersed settlements of socioeconomically marginalized groups are present, the "slum/vulnerable clusters" selection of ASHA can be conducted at a lower population.
• It will be preferable to choose more than one ASHA below the designated population standard when more than one ethnic or vulnerable group is present in a given geographic area.
• In such a situation, one ASHA might be chosen for and from a particularly vulnerable group in order to address their unique needs through a proper grasp of that community's sociocultural customs.
• For service delivery at the doorstep, the chosen ASHAs will preferably co-locate in the Anganwadi Centers that are operational at the slum level.
• In the same way as rural areas, urban communities with a population of 50,000 or fewer must choose ASHAs.
• This can also be accomplished by using the other community volunteers who built under other government programmes.

ASHA facilitators

For every 10 to 25 ASHAs, there is an ASHA facilitator in place as part of a support structure to offer direction, mentorship, and performance evaluation. She is a vital component of the network of the support system. States have made significant progress in establishing support structures over the last three years as they have become more aware of the link between robust support structures and a successful ASHA programme. Typically, representatives from the ASHAs themselves are chosen to serve as facilitators. ASHAs who meet the necessary requirements in terms of education, training, and ability can use this job as a springboard for their careers.

As of 2018, there were 41,405 ASHA facilitators.

Each month, the ASHA Facilitator conducts roughly 20 supervisory visits. The supervisory visit fees for ASHA facilitators have risen from Rs. 250 per visit to Rs. 300 per visit effective as of October 2018 in order to encourage them to perform better (to be paid in November 2018). As a result, ASHA Facilitators will get roughly Rs 6000 per month.

The following is a general summary of what ASHA Facilitators do:

• Visit villages, which includes going on home visits with ASHA, holding meetings with the community and the VHSNC, and taking part in Village Health and Nutrition Days.
• Every month, organise cluster meetings for all the ASHAs in the region.
• Help ASHAs reach the most disadvantaged households.
• Support block-level ASHA training.
• Assist in the hiring of new ASHAs.
• Assist in the resolution of complaints.