Credibility questioned: India responds to UN panel's misleading report on female health workers

United Nations: India has challenged the credibility of a UN panel report on discrimination against women that incorrectly claimed women community health workers in India do not receive social security benefits.

BJP MP Poonamben Maadam said on Friday that the report’s approach “is misleading, to say the least, but more gravely, it questions the credibility and veracity of the information and recommendations” it contains. She made the remarks during the Interactive Dialogue on the Advancement of Women, held by the General Assembly's Third Committee, which handles social, humanitarian, and cultural issues.

The committee reviewed the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls report, which singled out India for allegedly denying social security benefits to women community health workers.

“The Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHA programme is a cornerstone of India's community health system and is critical to taking basic health care facilities to every village in India,” Maadam said. She highlighted that ASHA workers receive performance-based pay along with social security benefits.

Under the Prime Minister’s pension scheme, ASHA workers receive a monthly pension after the age of 60. They also get annual health coverage of ₹500,000 and life insurance of ₹200,000 under the Prime Minister’s insurance schemes,” she added.

“I wish the working group had undertaken a proper study before singling out India in the report,” Maadam said.

Claudia Flores, a Yale University law professor who chairs the working group, did not respond to Maadam’s criticisms when addressing participants’ observations during the dialogue.

UN Special Rapporteur Reem Alsalem, speaking later in the session on surrogacy, also made an inaccurate claim about India. While warning of exploitation risks in surrogacy, she stated that while altruistic surrogacy is legal in Britain, British nationals are among the most frequent foreign clients in India.

However, India banned commercial surrogacy and its use by foreigners under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act of 2021. Only altruistic, non-commercial surrogacy is permitted, and strictly for married Indian couples under stringent conditions.

IANS