Hundreds of Christian and Hindu health workers laid off

These are employees who were laid off in November without notice. Unionist Imran Bhatti: “We will continue our protests, the government is solely responsible for any misfortune suffered by these poor families.”

Hyderabad () – Hundreds of Christian and Hindu health workers protested demanding that the local government reinstate them in the local Municipal Corporation after they were dismissed in November last year. They have not been paid their salary since Christmas Eve and now that Easter is approaching, their situation has not changed, some of them explained. Many are also forced to borrow, even at very high interest rates, to pay rent and support their families.

The salary paid by the government was 25 thousand rupees (85 euros) for each health worker, but they were only paid 18 thousand rupees (60 euros). The rest of the total was deducted for holidays or deliberately paid a lower salary by officials without reason. The workers were fired without notice after working at the center for at least 17 years.

Most belong to the Christian community. In recent months they have been forced to work as day laborers doing menial jobs, but some barely manage to buy bread and butter.

Imran Bhatti, head of the union and social activist, interviewed by , declared: “Many couples used to work as health personnel and now the authorities fired them. It is easy to imagine the economic situation of these families. How can they pay the rent, the bills and the studies of their children?” The union had denounced that the health workers were not provided with adequate tools to work and now these workers have nothing to feed their children. “We will continue with our protests, the government is the only one responsible for any misfortune towards these poor families,” says Bhatti.

“We had nothing to give our children for Christmas and then the situation just got worse,” he told Arif Masih, one of the Christian health workers. “Our economic situation is no better than that of the people affected by the floods, we look everywhere for help, we ask for food rations for our children, and when we don’t find support anywhere we are forced to ask intermediaries for loans. I send my children to school so that they have a better life than ours, but since December we cannot pay the school fees. What will be the future of our children if they do not receive a proper education. The government should understand our suffering and give us back our Job positions.”