Kerala Asha workers cut hair as pay hike protest enters 50th day

Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers, on the 50th day of their indefinite strike demanding better remuneration intensified their protest outside the Secretariat on Monday, cutting their hair and some shaving their heads in an emotional gesture of defiance against the LDF government's apathy to their demands.

- STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE

Before cutting their hair, hundreds of women, with their tresses left open, walked down to the state secretariat and reached the venue, which is just 50 metres from the office of Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan. Padmajam and Beena, two ASHA workers, shaved their heads, while state representatives of the Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association cut their locks in front of the Secretariat, at the main protest site. Similar acts of solidarity were carried out across the state.

Before cutting their hair, and after the act, they chanted slogans while holding their shorn locks.