About 50,000 accredited social health activists (ASHA) are expected to assemble outside Swasthya Bhavan in Salt Lake on Wednesday afternoon.

They will meet health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam to present their demands, including a request to raise the monthly honorarium to ₹15,000.

ASHA workers — who monitor the health of mothers and children, encourage vaccinations, conduct field surveys on non-communicable diseases and run campaigns against open defecation — currently receive a monthly honorarium of ₹5,250.

“We also pay an additional ₹2,000 to them,” health minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said at a news conference on Tuesday.

Ishmatara Khatun, the secretary of West Bengal Asha Karmi Union said the activists were on ceasework for 38 days. “Our ceasework will continue till our demands are met,” she said.