An already overburdened, understaffed and under-resourced health system faced severe repercussions in the wake of the pandemic. Those at the forefront of health and nutrition service delivery at the community level are struggling due to increased work burden and low compensation received, particularly since most of them are not formally recognised as workers. In this article, we discuss the conditions of work of front-line women workers, especially accredited social health activists, anganwadi workers and their supervisors (Integrated Child Development Services supervisors, auxiliary nurse/midwife and ASHA facilitators) in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on interviews conducted with workers in Telangana and Bihar, we highlight how women front-line workers were overworked and underpaid even before the pandemic and continue to remain so even after.
