THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has constituted a high-level committee to study the issues raised by ASHA workers, 38 days after Health Minister Veena George announced the intention to form such a panel.

The five-member committee will be chaired by Haritha V Kumar, Director of the Women and Child Development Department. R Subhash, Additional Secretary of the Health Department, will serve as the convenor. In addition, two Additional Secretaries from the Finance and Labour Departments will be nominated to the committee as members. The fifth member is K M Veena, Head of Social Development at the National Health Mission.

The committee has been given three months to study the issues and make recommendations after holding discussions with various trade unions of ASHA workers.

ASHA workers, led by the Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association (KAHWA), have been staging protests since February, raising various demands. Their major demands include increasing the monthly honorarium to ₹21,000 and instituting a retirement benefit of ₹5 lakh.