ASHA WORKERS IN INDIA: THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS, CONSTRAINTS, AND PATHWAYS FOR IMPROVEMENT abstract

Community Health Workers as a crucial social engineering for attaining the goal of Universal Health Coverage has become the norm in underdeveloped and developing countries since the early 2000s. As the goals of attaining healthcare objectives intersected with the larger goal of achieving gender equality, the centrality of women in spearheading such initiatives was acknowledged with great enthusiasm. This article attempts to formulate a diversified understanding of the functions of Community Health Workers (CHW) within the context of the Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) in India. The larger objective is to understand the unique role of ASHA workers in contributing to India’s healthcare objectives, easing the accessibility of marginalized masses, and assessing the associated challenges. It also highlights the agency of ASHA in the state and the way forward to make the system more robust.