Step into the shoes of an ASHA worker with this web-based game inspired India's community health workers

With hurdles and tasks to complete SUPER ASHA feels like a familiar video game Its protagonist wakes up early gets through her morning chores and sets out on household visits But as the day progresses the tasks become more complicatedYou encounter a woman who cannot speak freely in front of her family Sensitive health information has to be collected And a household visit stretches into the evening Each decision you make comes with consequences with no easy answerMade by filmmaker and technologist Priya Goswami SUPER ASHA is a webbased game inspired by the experiences of Accredited Social Health Activists ASHA Indiarsquos frontline community health workersFor Goswami the idea began with spending time with ASHA workers in Haryana Mumbai and Kerala She observed them at work struck by the authority they commanded within their communities and the sheer volume of responsibilities they carriedPriya GoswamildquoThey had a mukhiyalike powerrdquo she recalls But when the cameras stopped rolling and workers opened up those stories stayed with her The women began speaking about the emotional weight of their jobs One worker recounted a harrowing incident she needed to tend to post 7 pm and had to request her husband to accompany herldquoIn them I saw my mom who was a schoolteacher and often had to hold the fort at home and at workrdquo Goswami says Their stories brought into focus the unpaid labour women do to keep families and communities functioning ldquoItrsquos the story of any mom who has to hold everything togetherrdquo says GoswamiASHAs are responsible for connecting communities with public healthcare Their jobs entail supporting maternal and child health encouraging immunisation and helping families access medical services But their work mdash which often goes unnoticed mdash also involves navigating family dynamics building trust and responding to circumstances that cannot be neatly captured in a checklistGoswami initially considered making a documentary But she wanted audiences to experience the personal cost of these demands rather than simply observe them ldquoHow to make someone feel the pinch of what ASHA workers go throughrdquo became the question driving the projectBut why a game Goswami admits that virtual reality offered the possibility of immersion but accessibility was a concern A webbased game with simple mechanics could reach people without specialised equipment More importantly it could make players active participants in the storySUPER ASHA draws on real experiences with situations becoming progressively more unsettling ldquoIt starts off as a cutesy game but gradually it becomes sinister You need to play the game to knowrdquo Goswami says The challenge was to keep players engaged while also allowing them to discover the emotional weight of the work themselvesASHA workers build trust by entering peoplersquos homes listening to intimate concerns and helping them navigate healthcare Yet they are also expected to record information for government programmes adding administrative responsibilities to an already demanding roleGoswami questions what happens when a relationship built on trust becomes a means of extracting information ldquoYou are extracting something of their trust An ASHA worker should not be a data collectorrdquo she saysThe question of remuneration and recognition has become particularly visible in Kerala Beginning on February 10 2025 ASHA workers staged a sitin outside the state secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram demanding a higher monthly honorarium payment of pending dues and retirement benefitsTheir indefinite protest ended on November 1 2025 after 266 days following the announcement of a Rs 1000 increase in the monthly honorarium The workers maintained that their wider demands remained unresolved Goswamirsquos research took her from Haryana to Maharashtra and Kerala revealing how the work changes across communities while remaining rooted in trustSuper ASHA was developed by a small team including Basim the lead animation and build Ranjitha Rajeevan the visual designer and 10 other freelancers Working alongside other commitments it took the team over 13 months to complete the project ldquoI do look at it as a tool for empathyrdquo Goswami says ldquoI want gamers to feel like itrsquos a game worth playing but I hope it will also help them understand the dilemmas these women facerdquoThe game cannot resolve the problems of public healthcare or secure better working conditions for ASHA workers But it can kickstart the conversation ldquoAn expert from a renowned university abroad played the game Incidentally hersquos from Haryana and he could not understand why an ASHA worker has to wake up at 4 am to do her domestic choresrdquo says Goswami pointing out that this game could potentially give the opposite sex a peek into the invisible labour the women around them take on