India, July 22 -- More than 600 Asha and Anganwadi workers protested at Azad Maidan on Tuesday, demanding that they be exempted from Special Intensive Revision (SIR) work, saying the additional election-related duties were affecting essential healthcare services.

A delegation of the workers later met Maharashtra Chief Electoral Officer S Chokalingam and urged him to relieve them of SIR-related responsibilities.

The protesters said over 75,000 Asha workers and more than one lakh Anganwadi workers across the state had been deployed as Booth Level Officers (BLOs) or assistant BLOs for the electoral roll revision exercise.

The workers argued that assigning them election-related work compromised services such as maternal and child healthcar...