Bengaluru: Thousands of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) from across the State launched a massive indefinite day and night protest at Freedom Park in Bengaluru on Thursday demanding a fixed monthly honorarium and abolition of ASHA Soft, an online payment system.

Around 15,000 ASHAs marched in a procession from the City Railway Station to Freedom Park. The ASHAs are also demanding timely disbursement of their performance-based incentives as most of them have not received payments for three to six months.

Responding to their demands, the State government on Thursday issued a Government Order (GO) sanctioning a fixed honorarium of Rs. 5,000 to ASHAs with some conditions by clubbing various incentives. However, the workers said this was just eyewash and that they would be earning less than what they are already getting as incentives.

“If we perform the mandatory services as mentioned in the Government Order, our performance-based incentives will be more than the fixed honorarium. We cannot accept this,” said D. Nagalakshmi, secretary, Karnataka State Samyukta ASHA Workers’ Association.

She said the online system, which helps the Health Department capture beneficiary-wise details of services given by ASHAs to the community, and also ensures online payments to their bank accounts, is making life harder for them.