‘We Are In A Fight for Azaadi’: Notes From An ASHA Worker’s Diary

When does an ASHA worker’s day start, where does it end? A year ago we reached out to Lakshmi Kaurav, an ASHA facilitator, to document her work and record her footprints through the system in her voice, at her own pace. How much time and labour went into work the government termed “flexible” and “honorary”, grounded in the ideas of “seva”? From her vantage point what were the realities of the system? And what about her friendships, her idea of dignity? 

Lakshmi set out to chronicle her days. Between mid August and early October in 2025 she sent her outtakes over WhatsApp sometimes as voice notes, or as text, at moments of interlude found during long commutes or at night when she sat with the day’s triumphs and disappointments.

In her notes she reported her routines and relationships, travels and tribulations. What emerged was a dizzying ledger of labour. Most of it unpaid, unrecognised, or both.

Her definition and measurement of work was unlike any government index or survey. This is, in her own words, a counter narrative to the official question: But what do ASHA workers do?

There are some gaps and many silences, and the daily rhythm of ASHA workers’ lives are bound to vary across regions and with social backgrounds. In that sense, these reflections are by no means an exhaustive account. But they preserve one record of an ASHA worker’s day spent in constant negotiation with the state and its citizens, and in many ways, with oneself. In these pages, you will find sincerity, resolve, dismay, anger, hope, even joy, and long shadows of loneliness and exhaustion that come with challenging an invisibility bestowed upon you.