TY - JOUR
T1 - The family context of ASHA and Anganwadi work in rural Rajasthan
T2 - Gender and labour in CHW programmes
AU - Closser, Svea
AU - Shekhawat, Surendra Singh
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the Fulbright-Nehru program [grant number 2018/APE(R-Flex)/136]. We are deeply grateful to the ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers, and their families, who opened their homes to us and spoke frankly with us. We are further grateful for the support and feedback provided by the Rajasthan Ministry of Women and Child Development, and by faculty at the Indian Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur. We thank Rachel Neill for the helpful comments. This work was funded by the Fulbright-Nehru programme.
Funding Information:
We are deeply grateful to the ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers, and their families, who opened their homes to us and spoke frankly with us. We are further grateful for the support and feedback provided by the Rajasthan Ministry of Women and Child Development, and by faculty at the Indian Institute of Health Management Research in Jaipur. We thank Rachel Neill for the helpful comments. This work was funded by the Fulbright-Nehru programme.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Across the literature on CHWs globally, the role of CHWs’ families remains largely unexplored. This article focuses on ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers in a town in rural Rajasthan, India. We interviewed all twenty ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers in this town, and ten of their families; we also conducted participant observation in Anganwadi Centers, health centres, and family settings. ASHA and Anganwadi work was in high demand, despite being low paying, because of an overall lack of jobs for educated women. Every aspect of CHW work, from recruitment to selection to training to the number of hours spent on the job, was heavily determined by families. Women’s mobility, income, and workload was tied up in family structures. ASHA and Anganwadi Work increased the mobility and autonomy of the women who held those jobs in significant ways. But mostly, women stayed in these extremely low paying jobs because they and their families hoped that one day they would become permanent jobs with salaries and benefits. By providing honourable work, and keeping the idea of permanent employment in view but always just out of reach, the ASHA and Anganwadi programmes both exploited and strengthened gendered inequalities in the rural Rajasthani labour market.
AB - Across the literature on CHWs globally, the role of CHWs’ families remains largely unexplored. This article focuses on ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers in a town in rural Rajasthan, India. We interviewed all twenty ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers in this town, and ten of their families; we also conducted participant observation in Anganwadi Centers, health centres, and family settings. ASHA and Anganwadi work was in high demand, despite being low paying, because of an overall lack of jobs for educated women. Every aspect of CHW work, from recruitment to selection to training to the number of hours spent on the job, was heavily determined by families. Women’s mobility, income, and workload was tied up in family structures. ASHA and Anganwadi Work increased the mobility and autonomy of the women who held those jobs in significant ways. But mostly, women stayed in these extremely low paying jobs because they and their families hoped that one day they would become permanent jobs with salaries and benefits. By providing honourable work, and keeping the idea of permanent employment in view but always just out of reach, the ASHA and Anganwadi programmes both exploited and strengthened gendered inequalities in the rural Rajasthani labour market.
KW - ASHAs
KW - Anganwadi workers
KW - Community health workers
KW - Rajasthan
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U2 - 10.1080/17441692.2021.1970206
DO - 10.1080/17441692.2021.1970206
M3 - Article
C2 - 34432611
AN - SCOPUS:85113492797
SN - 1744-1692
VL - 17
SP - 1973
EP - 1985
JO - Global public health
JF - Global public health
IS - 9
ER -