Health assistants continued their work abstention for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, staging a sit-in at the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) in Dhaka’s Mohakhali area.
They staged the demonstration to press home a six-point demand, including correction of recruitment rules, removal of pay disparities, and the granting of technical rank status.
The work stoppage has led to a complete halt of immunisation at 120,000 outreach EPI centres across the country, leaving mothers and children unable to receive scheduled vaccines. The disruption has caused significant hardship, with no clarity yet on when services will resume.
According to the protesters, they did not want to deprive marginalised communities of essential services but were “forced” into this situation due to long-standing inaction from the DGHS and the Health Ministry. They vowed to return to work only after their demands are met through an official notification.
Leaders of the Bangladesh Health Assistant Association said officials have been offering assurances for 27 years without taking action.
They will not leave the place until their demands are met. If health risks increase for mothers and children, the responsibility lies with the authorities, they said.
Their major demand is to upgrade health assistants from the 16th to the 14th grade, along with structured promotions and recognition of in-service diploma qualifications. They warned of tougher programmes if their demands remain unaddressed.
Health assistants said they have been frontline workers in delivering vaccines against 10 deadly childhood diseases and have played a key role in Bangladesh’s achievements in eliminating smallpox and polio, reducing maternal and child mortality, and implementing measles–rubella, Covid-19, HPV, and TCV vaccination campaigns.
Thousands of health assistants, assistant health inspectors, and health inspectors from all 64 districts joined the sit-in, which began on Saturday. The group had previously suspended a similar protest in October following official assurances.
