AYUSH healthworkers who served during the COVID-19 pandemic protested at Neelam Park in Bhopal on Tuesday, demanding reinstatement in Madhya Pradesh’s health department and contract jobs under the National Health Mission (NHM). The workers said their services ended on March 31, 2022, after the government stopped funding their posts.
The protesters included AYUSH doctors and other medical staff who said they had been deployed when the state needed additional healthcare personnel during the pandemic. They are now asking the government to recognise that experience through continued employment in the public health system.
Their demands include appointments on a contract basis under the NHM and postings against vacant positions in district hospitals, medical colleges, Primary Health Centres and Community Health Centres. The requested placements would extend the workers’ role from emergency pandemic staffing to regular public health service delivery.
The protest highlights the employment uncertainty faced by health personnel appointed for time-bound emergency requirements. According to the workers, their posts ended after the budget for the positions was discontinued, leaving them without a continuation mechanism even though they had already worked in government health facilities during the pandemic.
The demand is also tied to how public health departments manage temporary staffing after a crisis subsides. Emergency recruitment can expand the available workforce quickly, but the workers’ claims indicate that such appointments may not automatically lead to permanent or longer-term roles once dedicated funding ends. The current demand is for contractual employment rather than immediate permanent appointment.
The association said Bihar, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh had provided contract jobs to COVID-19 workers. The comparison was cited by the protesters as a basis for seeking a similar arrangement in Madhya Pradesh. The supplied report does not include a response from the state health department or details of any government decision on the demand.
The workers’ requested postings cover multiple levels of the public health network. District hospitals and medical colleges serve as larger referral facilities, while PHCs and CHCs provide care closer to communities. Any decision to fill vacancies with former pandemic workers would therefore involve the health department’s staffing rules, available NHM funding and the identification of sanctioned or vacant posts.
For the workers, the issue is both employment and recognition of their pandemic service. For the health system, it concerns whether personnel recruited during an emergency can be retained through existing programmes once the original crisis funding ends. The protest has brought that unresolved transition into public view, but the available information does not establish how many workers are seeking jobs, how many vacancies exist or whether the government has accepted any part of their demand.
The protesters are seeking a government decision on contract appointments under the NHM and placement against vacant positions in public health institutions. No official timeline for a response was reported.
