Health assistants continue work stoppage demanding grade upgradation

Health assistants continued their indefinite work stoppage today to press home their six-point demand, including upgrading their posts to the 14th grade.

Several thousand health assistants, under the banner of the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association, began a sit-in yesterday morning and stayed overnight at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, said Fazlul Haque Chowdhury, member secretary of the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association Central Coordination Council.

He added that the health adviser had called them for a meeting, and an 11-member team was on its way to the Secretariat for discussions, he told this correspondent around 12:30 pm.

Photo: Prabir Das

"But we will not withdraw our program unless the government issued GO [government order] upgrading our entry post from 16th grade to 14th grade," he said.

On November 23, the association announced it would launch a work stoppage if its demands were not met by November 28.

Health assistants serve as frontline public health workers, particularly in rural and hard-to-reach areas, conducting routine vaccination sessions among other responsibilities.

The association has long demanded amendments to recruitment rules, an end to salary discrimination, and the granting of technical status, among six key demands.

They observed a work abstention in early October to press the same demands but withdrew after receiving assurances from the authorities.