Organising a press meet in Kathmandu on Wednesday, Sabitri Mainali, vice-chairperson of the Nepal Health Volunteers’ Association, said they would stop working if the government fails to address their demands.

Stating that the government failed to address their concerns in the annual budget, she said the Association would stage protests before the Ministry of Health and Population and picket the Ministry of Finance from August 8.

In their charter of demands, the FCHVs have asked the government to provide each of them Rs 24,000 as annual allowance, Rs 15,000 as clothes allowance, Rs 10,000 for festivals and a health insurance scheme. They have also urged the government to provide Rs 10,000 for each year’s of service if an FCHV quits the job.

The government in its annual budget this year doubled the travel allowance for the FCHVs to Rs 400 and increased the clothes allowance to Rs 5,000. In July 2011, the FCHVs had launched similar protest demanding that their meager incentives be increased.

The protest, however, lost steam after trade unions affiliated to political parties intervened and attempted to bring them into the political fold. The FCHVs perform many roles, including counseling women on healthy behaviors, promoting vitamin A campaigns

and immunisation programmes and recommending women to nearby health centres.