The ASHA's Tuesday Round: One Village, One Register — Epoche A2
Purpose An ASHA — an Accredited Social Health Activist — is India's village health worker: a woman who lives in the village she serves, carries a register, and is paid a small amount for each task. This report follows one ASHA through one Tuesday morning. The round, in order First house, 8:10. A baby born eleven days ago is weighed in a cloth sling, and the number goes in the book. The mother says the child feeds well; the ASHA asks again, differently, gets the same answer, and only then writes it down. Second house, 8:40. A mother who has missed the vaccination camp twice. The ASHA does not argue. She waits, drinks the tea she is given, tells the story of a child in the next village who did not miss it — and then walks with her to the camp. Walking with people is most of the work. Camp, 9:30. Registrations, names checked against the book. Four more houses, to 11:00. Who has a fever. Who is coughing. Who has gone away to the city. Findings Nothing in this round needed a hospital, a doctor or electricity. It needed a neighbour, a pen, and a register that the nurse reads on Friday. Care is usually pictured as starting at a hospital door. It starts earlier than that, and on foot.