Empowering or Exhausting? COVID-19 Experiences of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in Kerala

The study aims to understand the nature and intensity of Accredited Social Health Activists’ (ASHAs) work and its gendered significance in social and healthcare contexts, specifically during the COVID-19 scenario, by critically exploring the family, community and state responses as well as the work’s impact on their personal, relational and environmental levels. Employing a qualitative survey method, in-depth interviews were carried out with 52 ASHAs shortly after the pandemic. The findings reveal that while ASHAs view the altruistic, community service aspect of their work as empowering, the state must recognise the burden of underpaid community care work on women, which is exhausting and contributes to time poverty and a lack of leisure. This study advocates for policy interventions to regularise ASHAs’ services and increase their remuneration from a gender justice perspective.