Health services across Maharashtra, including Pune, have collapsed as over 35,000 National Health Mission (NHM) employees continue their indefinite strike for regularization and equal pay.
Critical units like maternity wards, neonatal ICUs, vaccination, and disease control programs are severely disrupted, directly affecting patients.
Despite court orders and a 2024 government resolution for staff absorption, no action has been taken, deepening the crisis and sparking anger among employees.
Pune, 3rd September 2025: Health services across Maharashtra, including Pune, have nearly collapsed as the strike by employees and officers of the National Health Mission (NHM) entered its fifteenth day. The indefinite strike, involving more than 1,400 workers in Pune and over 35,000 across the state, has brought key medical facilities to a standstill.
Due to the protest, essential services such as neonatal intensive care units, maternity wards, surgery theatres, immunization programs, and treatment of diseases like tuberculosis, leprosy, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension have been badly hit. Vaccination drives for children and adolescents have also been severely disrupted.
Nearly half of Maharashtra’s health workforce operates under NHM on a contractual basis, some for 15 to 20 years. These include doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, data operators, and program managers. Despite working alongside permanent staff, they receive 50–60% lower pay and fewer benefits.
Adding to the frustration, the Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court in 2022 ordered the state to absorb long-serving NHM employees into the regular health service. In March 2024, the state government even issued a resolution to implement this, but no action has followed for over a year.
The ongoing strike has already had tragic consequences. A pregnant woman reportedly died in Jalna, and a patient in Nagpur succumbed to malaria after being unable to access timely treatment. Yet, instead of resolving the issue, senior health officials have warned employees of action, deepening resentment among staff.
NHM employees point out that in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, contractual workers have been granted equal pay for equal work, while Maharashtra continues to delay. According to the NHM Employees’ Committee in Pune, more than 14,000 staff in the state have served over 10 years, and nearly 6,000 of them can be regularized immediately without any rule changes.
“The strike will continue until the government fulfills its commitment to regularize services,” said committee president Vijay Gaikwad.
With no breakthrough in talks and officials remaining unresponsive, the strike shows no signs of ending soon, leaving Maharashtra’s public health system in a worsening crisis.
