Lady health workers express concern over the devolution of program  

KARACHI: The All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Welfare Association (APLHWWA) has strongly rejected the devolution of the Sindh Lady Health Workers Program and changes in its structure.

These views were expressed by the Central Chairperson of the All Pakistan Lady Health Workers Welfare Association, Bushra Arain, while addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club. Senior office-bearers of the APLHWWA were also present on occasion.

Bushra Arain said that the Sindh government is trying to change the name of the lady health workers program and its logo, which is unacceptable. She said that Sindh's lady health workers had rejected the structural changes that were made in the program.

She claimed that 25,000 lady health workers are working in Sindh to vaccinate children and saving them from living a life with disability under Shaheed Benazir Bhutto’s vision; however, the Sindh government has completely changed the structure of the program in the fiscal year 2020-21 budget.

She informed that the Sindh Health Department had introduced a new controversial program, which is illegal and unconstitutional, as well as a violation of the apex court order. She explained that the provincial government had shifted eight vertical programs from the development budget into the non-development budget.

Bushra Arain said that the former PPP Prime Minister had promised no structural changes in the Sindh lady health workers program, but now the provincial government is trying to bring changes in its structure.

She said that the lady health workers program was introduced by Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 1994, bringing essential healthcare services to these vulnerable populations. She said that all kinds of conspiracies would fail against this program as lady health workers stand united.

Earlier, many lady health workers across the Sindh province staged a protest and observed a token sit-in against the changes introduced in the structure of the Sindh Lady Health Workers Program outside the Karachi Press Club.

-MN Report