Authors: Baldeep K Dhaliwal, Madhu Gupta, Anuradha Nadda, Shalini Singh, Anita Shet, Kerry Scott, Aakanksha Dutta, Svea Closser
The ASHA program in India is the world’s largest all-female community health worker initiative, but little is known about how ASHAs work in cities. This study explored the roles and challenges of urban ASHAs in Punjab through interviews, focus groups, and observation. Urban ASHAs play a key role in connecting vulnerable communities to healthcare, but they face major challenges like serving too many people, lack of training, low pay, and limited community support. Weak management and staff shortages make these problems worse. To improve the program, policies should focus on better training, fair pay, stronger supervision, and more community involvement. These changes could help urban ASHAs provide better, more equitable healthcare.
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Resource Topic: CHW Role, Urban, Urban Health, health systems
Resource Type: Qualitative
Year: 2025
Region: Asia
Country: India
Publisher May Restrict Access: No