In a significant administrative reshuffle, the Karnataka Health Department has relieved all contract nurses working under the National Health Mission (NHM) from their roles as ASHA mentors and as District or Block Community Mobilizers.

The move comes more than 15 years after contract nursing staff were first assigned the additional responsibility of training and supervising Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs), Deccan Herald reported.

Introduced in 2007-08, these roles were created to strengthen community-level health outreach. Contract nurses under NHM were appointed as trainers for newly-inducted ASHAs and designated as District or Block Community Mobilizers.

Currently, there are 195 ASHA mentors across the state, tasked with overseeing ASHA activities, conducting trainings, managing the ASHA Nidhi portal, and ensuring proper disbursal of incentives.

However, a government order (GO) issued on June 12 has stated that these mentoring roles are no longer required.

The department believes that trained Lady Health Visitors and Senior Health Inspectors at the Primary Health Centre (PHC) and taluk levels, along with District Nodal Officers, are now adequately equipped to take over the responsibilities previously assigned to ASHA mentors.

The 195 contract nurses affected by this decision may now be reassigned to vacant contract-based nursing posts across various districts, according to the GO.