Thiruvananthapuram: Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in Kerala announced Friday that they were calling off their 265-day protest outside the state Secretariat. The decision came a day after Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan increased their honorarium by Rs 1,000 to a monthly total of Rs 8,000.

The protest will end 1 November, the day when the state government is set to declare itself free of extreme poverty at a special session of the Legislative Assembly. Vijayan’s decision to announce the hike in their honorarium also came ahead of local body polls in a month.

“We achieved most of our demands, and our protest has led to many changes. So, we are going to end the protest outside the Secretariat today,” said A.A. Bindu, leader of the Kerala ASHA Health Workers Association (KAHW

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