Patient care workers meet in New Delhi on May Day
Waking up to the call of skilling India[1], a bunch of young workers employed in geriatric care in New Delhi, India, braved the soaring heat of May and met on what is globally recognised as the international workers day or Labour day. The group of forty (16 females & 24 males) were gathered for their first meeting as a group to form the city’s first healthcare workers co-operative. The felt need of the group was identified as gainful employment and decent pay for workers employed in the healthcare business that rests almost entirely on human capital and values associated with it.
Ms. Anu (in pic above) came to Delhi a number of years ago and worked as a brick breaking labour in her adolescent years. A few years ago, she was introduced to a training workshop organised by SACH (Society for Action in Community Health – NGO) whereupon she started work as a geriatric care giver. In a few years she was able to provide decent education and nutritious meals for her daughter who now studies in the 10th grade and will be giving her state level exams soon. She said she owed her alleviation out of extreme poverty to her undeterred will to not give up and the professional skills she received at the geriatric care trainings. Her friend Mr. Vinod, a young worker with 5 years of geriatric care experience opened the discussions and stated “Many private agencies have entered the business of supplying geriatric care workers and are fleecing them with high commission rates. I was getting paid INR 8000/- (USD 120/-) while my client was being charged INR 20000/-(USD 310/-). This is exploitation of both patients and workers. Despite this I carry out my duties impartially. That is the nature of our job”.
Vinod has now started soliciting work for other workers and take small commissions and has placed a couple of youngsters who have received trainings through SACH and the Geriatric centre it collaborates with. Dr. Naresh, a young medical professional who manages geriatric care for almost 20 aged and terminally ill patients in the facility, felt strongly against the practices of a few private entrepreneurs who were capitalising on the increasing demand for care. On doing it co-operatively, he said “I jumped on the idea when Mr. Rajendran (of SACH) told me we could experiment with the co-operative business model as it could ensure standard ethical practices in business that is most helpful in the healthcare sector”.
The meeting was historic for the workers gathered as they discussed their needs as service providers, good practices that they’ve inculcated via trainings and involving many other co-workers from Delhi and the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh to form a multi state co-operative with 51 % worker ownership. The group welcomed the ideas of hiring their own managers, sharing economic returns and the possibility of securing decent and self employment with the proposed co-operative. The Second meeting of the group was organised on 22 May 2016 at the same venue where 150 workers applied for membership. Ms. Rakhi, a care giver and a co-operator from Delhi spearheads the promoters group that includes stakeholders such as the training facility, the promoting NGO with technical experts and workers. The next meeting of this pre-coop is expected to be organised in 3 weeks to work on by-laws and financial model. ICA-AP took the role of facilitating registration of the group when the former was approached by SACH to hand hold the formation of this primary co-operative. The study on by laws of primary cooperatives by ICA-AP and its chapter with indicative by-laws form a reference point for the stakeholders in this exercise.
Besides addressing the issue of highly disorganised health/patient care industry in India, the proposed co-operative also plans to eventually serve many developed countries in the Asian region that continue to suffer from aging populations and need ethical service providers.
