Ranaghat, Dec. 24: Nadia district administration has launched an outreach initiative under the Duare Sarkar programme to enroll the backward people of tribal communities by doorstep visit since many of them are not aware of the social welfare schemes of the state government despite all-out campaigning and awareness drive throughout the year.
To begin with, the district administration picked up the Ranaghat subdivision. From last Monday (December 18) officials began visiting every tribal household in the blocks to find out the welfare schemes of which the tribal people are eligible. Still, they could not get the benefit due to a lack of awareness.
SDO Ranaghat Raunak Agarwal, who has been visiting the household said, “Seven Duare Sarkar camps have already been organized in the subdivisions. Apart from this, mobile camps were also organized and awareness initiatives were launched. But even after that, a big chunk of tribal people could not so far be included in all the beneficial schemes for which they are eligible. In fact, despite our best efforts, we could not make people aware of what the Duare sarkar offers or the state of the government offer”.
“We conducted some random surveys at some belts and found that many people are not enrolled in different welfare schemes simply because of their ignorance”, SDO Ranaghat told The NfN, who launched the initiative on Monday visiting 20 tribal households in Aarpara village of Santipur to identify such persons.
“To include all eligible persons we have conceived an outreach plan as an independent programme under the Duare Sarkar to visit every household in the remote tribal belt “, the Ranaghat SDO said adding that a set of questions prepared to ask at every house so that the drawbacks are identified instantly.
From Monday officials of Ranaghat subdivision have so far visited Ranaghat, Santipur, and Hanshkhali block. As per the admissibility, the beneficiaries were provided instant solutions.
On Monday, Sundari Munda first learned about Lakshmir Bhandar, while Gita Munda learned about old age pension and Laksmir Bhandar. The officials instantly took their enrollment application.
Welfare schemes like old age pension, Lakshmir Bhandar, Caste certificate, Swasthya Sathi, and migrant labour data were the focal issues under which many people were found to be left out.
Sources in Nabanna said that the poor inclusion of tribal people became a concern for the state government. In many districts, where a good number of tribal people with poor economic backgrounds live, their inclusion in different welfare schemes is not very satisfactory. “There is no specific data so far about the left out people…But the primary reports are not good enough”.
To overcome the drawback, Chief Secretary H.K.Dwivedi during a meeting on Duare Sarkar last year stressed the district administration to mobilize efforts in the backward tribal areas so that all people are covered and all 24 schemes are available to the eligible beneficiaries.
He also specifically mentioned undertaking special awareness in the tribal belts so that all the scheduled tribe people get their due benefits from the government.