Paper short abstract:

Based on an ethnographic fieldwork, this paper examines care work and monetary transactions among Accredited Social Health Workers (ASHAs) in urban India. It shows how ASHAs' monetary incentives and informal payments by their neighbours are intrinsic to their neighbourly relations of care.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines care work and monetary transactions among Accredited Social Health Workers (ASHAs) in India, working under National Health Mission. It is based on a long-term ethnographic fieldwork in a Delhi's urban poor neighbourhood, an area where ASHA workers and a governmental dispensary provides a large portion of health services. The NHM mobilizes ASHAs to educate, rise awareness and facilitate access to public health among their own neighbours. Their main tasks include maternal and child health issues, such as pre- and post-natal care, institutional deliveries, and vaccination. Instead of receiving stable salaries, ASHAs are remunerated with monthly monetary incentives for each specific completed task. This has resulted in ASHAs being underpaid and caused their nation-wide protests. Starting with an exploration of ASHA role as that of a neighbour, and not only a governmental worker, the paper shows how ASHAs' monetary incentives and informal payments by their neighbours are not antithetic, but intrinsic to their neighbourly relations of care. Engaging with feminist literature on payments and care work, the paper contributes to the understanding of how community health work can be underlined by affective ties of care without being underpaid.