Mothers of Mercy: Life of ASHA workers during the pandemic
World Health Organisation (WHO) recently honoured ASHA volunteers for their crucial role in the pandemic. Here's a tribute to India's one million, all-women ASHA volunteers who, through the pandemic, knocked on the doors of cramped urban jhuggis and isolated rural villages on foot to educate, vaccinate, and save lives as if they were their own
By: Madhu Kapparath
Deferential to custom but unbowed by her veil, ASHA worker Geeta Chaudry registers vaccine recipients at a vaccination clinic in Aakhtadi of Tonk District in Rajasthan on May 17, 2021. India's devastating wave of Covid-19 infections had gripped cities and overwhelmed urban health resources. But it also struck deep in rural India, where the extent of the devastation was unknown because of the lack of widespread testing or reliable data despite the best efforts by health workers.
