PDP leader and spokesperson Zuhaib Yousf Mir has called for an urgent resolution of the long-pending demands of National Health Mission (NHM) employees in Jammu and Kashmir, stressing that their struggle concerns dignity, job security and recognition.Mir said NHM workers have been serving in hospitals, health centres and remote areas and have often remained a crucial link between the public healthcare system and vulnerable communities. His remarks come amid a UT-wide agitation by NHM employees over demands including pay revision, regularisation and social-security benefits. Around 12,000 NHM employees began a 72-hour strike on September 9, with the agitation later extended amid continued concerns over the lack of a written assurance and timeline. �Kashmir News Service +1He called for a transparent and time-bound policy for regularisation, along with pay parity and social-security safeguards such as EPF, ESI and health insurance.“Years of service should not mean years of uncertainty,” Mir said, arguing that employees performing essential duties should have a clear pathway towards job security and fair treatment.Mir also urged both the Union and J&K governments to engage with NHM employees through meaningful dialogue and establish a time-bound mechanism to address their grievances.He further criticised what he described as an approach that treats healthcare workers as expendable, saying that the services of NHM employees are essential to sustaining the public-health system.“Healthcare workers cannot be treated as expendable. Their dignity must be protected, their grievances heard and their legitimate demands addressed with urgency,” Mir said.
