The charter included demands to 1. Recognise ASHAs government employees in accordance with the recommendations of the 45th Indian Labour Conference, and minimum wages should be implemented in place of incentives. 2. They should be made eligible for the EPF and ESI. 3. Payment of gratuity upon retirement be ensured. 4. Schemes for their health insurance of 4-10 lakh rupees and life insurance of 50 lakh rupees. 5. To set defined working hours with better working conditions. 6. The basic honorarium for ASHA workers at 21,000 rupees and for ASHA facilitators 28,000 rupees until the minimum wage is implemented and extra incentives for tasks other than basic maternal safety work. 7. Travel allowance or provision of scooters for daily commute. 8. Good quality 5G mobile phones and SIM cards for fast internet service. Also, remuneration for work performed as data operators. 9. A lump sum payment of ₹225.2 crore should be made for the contribution made towards the creation of the Golden Ayushman Card and Aabha Identity Card, at the rate of ₹15 per card, as in Bihar, until September 2025. 10. The families of Asha workers and Asha facilitators who died in various accidents from 2018 to 2025 should be paid the permissible sum assured of ₹2 lakh, and ₹10 lakh as compensation to their dependents. 11. In case of deaths of pregnant women who turn to private hospitals, the private hospitals and guardians should be held accountable for this situation, and all cases filed against innocent ASHA workers facing criminal charges should be withdrawn. 12. Immediate payment of all outstanding incentives, ex-gratia payments pending from 2019 to 2024, along with payment of any other amounts pending thereof. 13. Formation of a monitoring committee to oversee the forwarding of vouchers and prompt redressal of complaints be guaranteed, in order to stop the rampant bribery and extortion from ASHAs at community health centers. 14. A monitoring committee to stop the regular extortion of money in the name of sanctioning payments and a cell should be established to expedite redressal of complaints in this regard. As per an estimate by the ASHA union no less than over a 1,000 crore rupees might be extorted from nearly 2 lakh ASHA workers throughout the state in a year. 15. GSCASH should be formed in all districts to prevent sexual harassment, and ASHAs and Sanginis should be given representation on these committees.
The Uttar Pradesh government tried every repressive tactic against this strike, first by ignoring the ASHAs' memorandum and issuing warnings, and then, two days before the strike on 15 December, the Yogi government invoked the ESMA. It cleared its intentions of not going for the negotiations. However, ASHA union called these attempts repressive and undemocratic moves and decided to resist it. They began an indefinite strike starting December 15, expressing their resolve to resist any repression by the autocratic state government.
On the very first day of the strike, more than one lakh ASHA workers across the state joined the strike. With protests at district headquarters and health centers, the striking ASHA workers sought to transform it into a mass movement.
The Union announced a march to the state Legislative Assembly for December 23, 2025. The administration tried to thwart this mobilisation, and many Union district presidents and senior officials in 17 districts, including Moradabad, Rae Bareli, Unnao, Bareilly and Kushinagar, were placed under house arrest. Despite this, thousands of ASHA workers reached Lucknow.
The government then offered to hold talks. The Chief Minister's personal secretary and other senior officials sat for negotiations and agreed to discuss most issues in a high-level meeting within two days. However, the government reneged on its promise and showed no further interest in resuming the talks. The Union then called for demonstrations at the Divisional Commissioner's offices on January 9. In Gorakhpur, the Chief Minister's home district, Shashi Yadav, Secretary of the All India Scheme Workers Federation and member of the Legislative Council in Bihar, led the demonstration, while AICCTU national executive member Shweta Raj led ASHAs in the demonstration in capital Lucknow.
Over 40,000 ASHA workers participated in these demonstrations across 14 divisions of the state. On the same day, All India Scheme Workers Federation, supporting the strike by Uttar Pradesh Asha Workers Union, called for nationwide protest action which were taken out in various parts of the country, including Bihar, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Uttarakhand. Letters to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh with the demand of restarting talks with the UP ASHA Workers’ Union were sent through these protests.
On January 16, 2026, 10 national federations sent a joint letter to the Chief Minister, urging him to intervene immediately to end the strike by negotiating with the striking ASHA workers.
However, the Yogi government, notorious for its anti-labor character and repression of movements, used all tactics to break the strike, which included issuing of expulsion notices to thousands of ASHA workers. Police force was used in many places to end the ongoing protests, and criminal cases were filed in Kanpur and Sonbhadra.
However, the government failed to break the morale of the struggling ASHAs and they organised protests at the residences of several ministers, MPs, MLAs, and the Speaker of the State Legislative Assembly. January 17th was observed as a Black Day across the state that also attracted huge mobilisations.
From January 19-21, people's courts (Jan Adalats) were held against the government at many prominent centres including Kanpur, Rae Bareli, Kanpur Dehat, Badaun, Gorakhpur, Kushinagar and Allahabad. Various trade unions, civil society organizations, activists, and intellectuals participated in large numbers. This strike gradually transformed itself into a mass movement, with consistent efforts to make aware the public of the importance of such actions for the people and the democracy, through processions, demonstrations, and meetings in cities, villages, and towns.
The government reportedly employed a PR company to combat a genuine democratic and legal strike and launched a propaganda campaign through advertisements, memes, and AI videos falsely accusing ASHAs of commission-grabbing in private hospitals, luring patients away from government hospitals, and being engaged in bribery etc. The government tried to exhaust striking workers by prolonging the situation and deliberately not coming for talks. But these tactics utterly failed eventually in front of the united resolve of ASHAs. Why was the government evading them? At the heart of the escape from the talks was a scam involving Rs 1.5 lakh crore that was issued between 2019 and 2023 as incentives. The union has been raising this issue for the past three years, demanding a high-level investigation, recovery, and payments.
The Uttar Pradesh Asha Workers Union once again organized demonstrations at district headquarters on 30 January, the day of Mahatma Gandhi's martyrdom, and announced to hold an indefinite dharna in the capital from February 9 onwards. Alarmed by this announcement, the government eventually came to negotiations. The talks were held on February 3, more informal talks were also held on February 4th and 5th. After reaching an agreement on major points, a meeting was held with the Deputy Chief Minister and Health Minister on February 6.
Finally an agreement was reached on many demands. There will be an increase in the honorarium from the state's quota, and the incentives being given for various works will be reviewed and increased up to 25% to 35%, and gratuity will be given. This was also agreed to increase the life insurance limit to 15 lakh rupees along with health insurance, and payment of insurance claims to the families of accidental deaths from 2018 to 2025. An investigation committee will be constituted to investigate the incentives scam by including union representatives.
To implement these points the government has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of the Additional Chief Secretary of Health which will hold regular meetings with the Union. This committee also includes the Secretary Dept. of Family Welfare, the Mission Director of the National Health Mission, the Mission Director of Arogya Bharat, and the Director General of Health.
The government came to talks only because of the relentless protests and mobilisations. CPIML MP Comrade Sudama Prasad also raised the demands of UP ASHA workers in the Parliament.
Meanwhile, the government has released ₹1,090 crore and ₹224.2 crore in two installments after the Feb. 6 talks for the payment of outstanding dues from previous years. After 55 days, ASHA workers triumphantly announced their return to work, defeating an arrogant government. However, most ASHA workers only began returning to work after participating in the all India strike on February 12th.
