ASHA Incentive (Haryana)

What is the ASHA Incentive scheme in Haryana?

ASHA Incentive in Haryana is the payment package that the Department of Health and Family Welfare, working through the National Health Mission, pays to Accredited Social Health Activists for community health work in villages and urban wards. ASHA Incentive is listed as one of the Health and Family Welfare schemes onboarded on the Haryana State DBT portal, which means every rupee moves by Direct Benefit Transfer into the ASHA's own bank account.

The package has three separate layers, and confusing them is the single biggest reason ASHAs misjudge what they are owed:

• A fixed monthly honorarium of Rs 6,100, paid from the Haryana state budget with effect from 1 November 2023. This is paid for being an ASHA, not for any particular task.
• A routine activity incentive of Rs 2,000 per month, made up of eight separate tasks approved by the Mission Steering Group at national level.
• Activity-wise performance incentives, paid per case or per session, for work under maternal health, child health, immunisation, family planning, tuberculosis, leprosy, malaria and non-communicable disease programmes.

According to the NHM Haryana activity-wise incentive schedule, Haryana also pays an additional 50 per cent of the NHM-approved rate from its own state budget on most performance activities, and a further flat top-up on some of them. That state share is why a Haryana ASHA earns more per case than an ASHA in most other states doing identical work.

Who receives the ASHA Incentive in Haryana?

You receive the incentive if:

• You have been selected as an ASHA for a village or an urban ward in Haryana and hold the selection order.
• You are registered on the ASHA Pay-App used by NHM Haryana to record activity claims.
• Your bank account is Aadhaar-seeded so that DBT can reach it.
• You actually complete and record the activity being claimed.

You are not eligible if:

• You are not a selected ASHA. Anganwadi workers, ANMs, Multi-Purpose Health Workers and Mid-Day Meal workers are separate cadres with separate pay and cannot apply for ASHA Incentive.
• You are a member of the public. ASHA Incentive is a worker payment, not a citizen welfare benefit, so no ordinary resident can apply for it.
• Your ASHA post has been vacated, cancelled or transferred to another woman.
• The claimed activity is outside the district-specific list. Several incentives run only in named districts, salt-sample testing under NIDDCP is limited to Ambala, Faridabad, Jind, Gurgaon, Hisar, Karnal, Panipat, Panchkula, Rohtak and Sonepat, and radical malaria treatment to Karnal, Hisar, Kurukshetra, Mewat, Palwal, Sirsa and Yamunanagar.

How much does each ASHA activity pay in Haryana?

The eight routine activities that together make up Rs 2,000 a month are: preparing and updating the monthly list of pregnant women (Rs 300), the monthly list of eligible couples (Rs 300), the monthly due list of children for routine immunisation (Rs 300), household line-listing (Rs 300), maintaining the village or ward health register with birth and death registration (Rs 300), convening the monthly VHSNC or Ward-level Committee meeting (Rs 150 per meeting), community mobilisation for the monthly VHND or UHND (Rs 200), and attending the monthly meeting at the PHC (Rs 150).

Key per-case rates from the NHM Haryana schedule, shown as the total after the state share is added:

What social security does a Haryana ASHA get?

NHM Haryana funds four social security components on top of the incentives. Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana is paid at Rs 436 per ASHA per year and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana at Rs 20 per ASHA per year. ASHAs are enrolled in Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maandhan, where the monthly contribution ranges from Rs 55 to Rs 200 depending on the age at entry.

Exit and family support is paid from the state budget: Rs 2 lakh to an ASHA leaving the work after attaining 60 years of age, Rs 20,000 to an ASHA leaving after at least 10 years of service, and Rs 3 lakh to the family of a deceased ASHA.

How to apply for ASHA Incentive in Haryana

ASHA Incentive is not a scheme a citizen fills a form for. The route is selection first, then automatic monthly payment.

1. Watch for a vacancy notice for the ASHA post in your village or urban ward, issued by the Medical Officer in charge of the PHC or Urban PHC through the Gram Panchayat or ward office.
2. Apply to the PHC or the Civil Surgeon's office with proof of residence in that village or ward, your education certificates and your Aadhaar card. Selection is done through the Gram Sabha or the ward-level committee.
3. Collect the selection order and complete the induction and module training arranged by the District ASHA Coordinator.
4. Get registered on the ASHA Pay-App through your ASHA Facilitator, and give your Aadhaar-seeded bank account details for DBT seeding.
5. Record every activity in the Pay-App as you complete it, and keep the village health register, eligible couple list and due list updated, because the routine Rs 2,000 is released only against these records.
6. Get the monthly claim verified by the ASHA Facilitator and countersigned by the Medical Officer, after which the block accounts branch releases the amount by DBT.

How to check ASHA incentive payment status in Haryana

1. Open the ASHA Pay-App and check the month-wise claim summary, it shows which activities were accepted, which are pending verification and which were rejected.
2. Check your bank passbook or SMS alerts for the DBT credit, which arrives as a separate entry from the fixed honorarium.
3. Ask your ASHA Facilitator for the block-level payment sheet if an accepted claim has not been credited.
4. Escalate to the District ASHA Coordinator at the Civil Surgeon's office with the month, the activity and the case details.

Why ASHA incentives get delayed or rejected

• The activity was never entered in the Pay-App. Work done but not recorded is not paid, and back-entry after the monthly cut-off usually needs the Medical Officer's approval.
• Incomplete case data, an ANC claim without all three trimester entries, or an immunisation claim without the child's due-list entry, is held back.
• Bank account not Aadhaar-seeded, so the DBT transaction fails and returns.
• Name mismatch between Aadhaar, the bank record and the ASHA record.
• District restriction — claiming an incentive such as salt-sample testing or radical malaria treatment from a district where that activity is not sanctioned.
• Fund flow delay at state or block level, which affects a whole block at once rather than a single ASHA. If your neighbours in the same block were also unpaid for the same month, this is the likely cause.

Key dates and revisions

• 1 November 2023. The fixed monthly honorarium rose to Rs 6,100 and the Rs 2 lakh benefit for ASHAs leaving after age 60 came into force.
• 2023-24. The activity-wise schedule quoted above was notified by NHM Haryana, combining GoI rates under the Record of Proceedings with the state's 50 per cent share and additional state top-ups.
• Rates are revised through the annual NHM Programme Implementation Plan, so check the current-year ASHA incentive circular on the NHM Haryana website before disputing an amount.

Help and grievance redressal

• Haryana health helpline: 104, which also runs a grievance redressal cell.
• 104 Grievance Redressal and Health Helpline portal of NHM Haryana for written grievances.
• District ASHA Coordinator, Civil Surgeon's office, for payment and selection disputes.
• Directorate General Health Services, Swasthya Bhawan, Sector 6, Panchkula 134109, for policy-level representations.

No agent or middleman can charge an ASHA a fee to release her incentive. Every payment under this scheme moves through DBT into the ASHA's own account, and no official will ask for an OTP or a bank password.