Hundreds of Mid-Level Healthcare Providers began a hunger strike near Rajarathinam Stadium in Egmore on October 5, demanding permanent employment, equal pay, job security and the implementation of election promises from the Tamil Nadu government. The protest was organised by the Tamil Nadu Mid-Level Healthcare Providers’ Union.
The workers carried placards and raised slogans while seeking a monthly salary of Rs 45,000, payment of incentives pending for 2023 and 2024, paid maternity leave and higher incentives for services provided at wellness centres. They also demanded that their designation be changed to Community Health Officers and that certificates recognising the new designation be issued.
Union president N Sundari said the workers were currently paid Rs 21,000 a month despite undertaking a range of healthcare responsibilities. She questioned how employees could support their families on that income and said incentives due for 2023 and 2024 had not been paid. She also called for paid maternity leave for Mid-Level Healthcare Providers.
Sundari urged Tamil Nadu Health and Family Welfare Minister KG Arunraj and department secretary Darez Ahamed to meet the protesting workers and hold talks. The union said the hunger strike would continue until its demands were addressed.
The protest places working conditions at the community-health level at the centre of the dispute. Mid-Level Healthcare Providers are involved in services at wellness centres, and the workers’ demands cover not only remuneration but also recognition of their role, employment security and access to employee benefits. The source report did not specify the number of workers employed under the arrangement or the total number of wellness centres affected.
Former DMK minister Mano Thangaraj, who joined the protest on behalf of the Constitution Protection Movement, described the agitation as a rights-based struggle. He said equal pay for equal work was not being ensured and claimed that Mid-Level Healthcare Providers received only Rs 21,000 while remuneration was higher in other states. When asked why the demands had not been addressed during the previous DMK government, Thangaraj declined to comment, saying he was participating as part of a movement working to protect people’s rights.
Advocate Balan said nurses in Karnataka, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh received maternity leave and better remuneration, while their counterparts in Tamil Nadu lacked adequate job security and employee benefits. Advocate Vanchinathan said the workers had been forced to protest because the government had failed to engage with them, and called on the health minister and secretary to hold discussions and resolve their grievances.
The protesters said they would continue the hunger strike until the government agreed to their demands. No response from the Health and Family Welfare Department was reported in the source account.
