Since Saturday, community healthcare providers (chcp) from across the country have been agitating in demand of nationalisation of their jobs. The Community Clinic Project, started in 1998, has almost 14,000 community clinics that cater to the medical needs of people across the country, especially in the grassroots. The health workers provide service 6-days a week, 30 drugs free of cost, and in some cases, child delivery care. According to news reports, on average, 30-40 people avail the services of these clinics every day.

The project employs around 14,000 healthcare providers—one for each clinic. The healthcare providers have said that since their jobs remain outside the revenue budget, their salaries have remained unchanged, without any scope for increments and other amenities. After closure during the BNP–Jamaat regime (2001–2008), the project was restarted in 2009. Protestors say that over the years, there were promises of nationalisation of these jobs. They claim that because of the assurances many of them did not leave the job even when they had the scope for doing so.

Their grievances and rationalisation for their demands are legitimate and deserve quick attention from the authorities. The longer the issues remain unresolved, the longer the 50 lakh people who avail services from these clinics are deprived. While there has been talk of bringing the clinics under an autonomous body, the protestors have refused to agree to that. The government needs to act quickly and engage in dialogue with the healthcare providers to come to an acceptable solution. These clinics provide a much-needed service for the communities they serve and the job needs to come with the right incentives for providing that public service.