Impact of pandemic on frontline worriers: A situational Analysis of ASHAs of Mangalore city.

Accredited Social Health activists (ASHAs) are community health workers who are one among the India’s frontline health workers recognised under the National Rural Health Mission of Government of India. The ASHA programme is considered to be very important in achieving the goal of increasing community participation with the health system. The ASHA is a woman selected from the community, who is trained and deployed to function in her own village to improve the health status of the community. The term ASHA, who’s meaning loosely translates to “hope” in English, is known as “Accredited Social Health Activist”, who is the rained community health activist. Along with Auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs) and Anganwadi Workers (AWWs), ASHAs are playing an essential role in strengthening the primary healthcare system in community. Unfortunately, their work is invisible and under recognized. As result of this they are excluded from the protection offered under various labour laws. ASHAs are paid less and they do not receive social security benefits. Before Pandemic They had multiple tasks to do, their duty is to promote community development through healthcare awareness and immunization programmes. They also collect data regarding healthcare, conduct awareness programmes, and check on the well-being of the people at the local level.  Since the COVID‑19 pandemic unfolded in India, the duties and responsibilities of the ASHA workers have expanded. Along with their regular activities they have to conduct door to door surveys, watching out for the symptoms of covid, tracing primary and secondary contacts, clearing the myths and stigma associated with the pandemic so on. Their health was endangered because they were not provided with adequate safety measures and proper training to deal with the pandemic. This paper is an attempt to understand the Role and problems of ASHA workers during and after the covid -19 pandemic. The study is based on both primary and secondary data collected through interview method