The World Health Organization recognised India's one million all-women ASHA volunteers for their critical role in providing direct access to healthcare facilities in rural areas and their unwavering efforts to combat the country's coronavirus outbreak.
ASHA volunteers (Accredited Social Health Activists) are Indian government-affiliated health workers who serve as the initial point of contact in rural India.
During the peak of the pandemic in India, the majority of them made headlines for conducting door-to-door checks to track down coronavirus patients.
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization, presented six awards to honour outstanding contributions to global health, demonstrated leadership, and commitment to regional health challenges.
The honourees for the World Health Organization Director-Global General's Health Leaders Awards are chosen by Dr. Tedros.
The awards, which were introduced in 2019, were presented as part of the 75th World Health Assembly's live-streamed high-level opening session.
ASHA, which means hope in Hindi, is one of the honourees. More than 1 million Indian female volunteers were recognised for their critical role in connecting the community with the health system, ensuring that those living in rural poverty have access to primary health care services, as demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the statement.
ASHA volunteers have also helped with prenatal care and vaccinations for children against vaccine-preventable diseases, as well as community health care, hypertension and tuberculosis treatment, and nutrition, sanitation, and healthy living education.
the WHO chief stated, “At a time when the world is facing an unprecedented convergence of inequity, conflict, food insecurity, the climate crisis and a pandemic, this award recognises those who have made an outstanding contribution to protecting and promoting health around the world.”
He further said, “These awardees embody lifelong dedication, relentless advocacy, a commitment to equity, and selfless service of humanity.”
The team of Afghan polio vaccination workers who were massacred by armed attackers in the country's Takhar and Kunduz districts in February this year were among the other notable honorees.
These workers include Mohamamd Zubair Khalazai, Shadab Yosufi Najibullah Kosha, Haseeba Omari, Shareefullah Hemati, Khadija Attaee, Munira Hakimi, Robina Yosufi and her brother Shadab.
Four of these women workers had been doing house-to-house campaigns in north-eastern Afghanistan, reaching out to thousands of children.
Afghanistan, along with its neighbour Pakistan, is one of the world's two polio-endemic countries.
Attempts to eradicate this devastating illness from areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan have been impeded in recent years by militants who have killed vaccination crews in the name of eradicating polio, believing that polio drops cause infertility.
Other honorees include Dr. Paul Farmer, chair of Harvard Medical School's Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and co-founder of the worldwide non-governmental organisation Partners in Health, who died in Rwanda in February this year.
