To make 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi memorable, Chhattisgarh government is all set to launch five new schemes to provide better nutrition and health to people of the state These are Mukhyamantri Suposhan Abhiyan, Chief Minister Haat-bazaar Clinic Scheme, Chief Minister Urban Slum Health Scheme, Universal PDS Scheme and Chief Minister Ward Office Scheme.
Suposhan Abhiyan aims to eradicate malnutrition and anemia from the state within three years. According to National Family Health Survey, presently 37.6% children of age below five years in Chhattisgarh are suffering from malnutrition, and 41.5% females of age group 15-49 years are suffering from anemia.
In certain Gram Panchayats of Bastar and other forest areas of Chhattisgarh, Suposhan Abhiyan was started as pilot project in June, 2019. Under this campaign, under-nourished children and anemic girls-women are being provided freshly cooked nutritious meal through women self-help groups and panchayats.
Buoyed by the success of the initiative, the government decided to launch the Abhiyan throughout the state on the occasion of birth anniversary of Father of the Nation.
Under this campaign, under-nourished children of age group 0-5 years and anemic women of age group 15-48 years will be provided freshly-cooked nutritious meals through panchayats and women self-help groups. Massive public participation in this campaign would be ensured to achieve the goal set for the campaign, government sources claimed.
The scheme was necessitated as rice provided under PDS proved not sufficient to meet nutritional requirements for physical and mental development of nearly 40% of the population in Chhattisgarh living below poverty line.
Apart from malnutrition another challenge before the government was provide medical help to people of the state living in far-flung tribal areas, who are unable to avail healthcare services, as hospitals are situated far off.
But people of rural areas often visit local haat-bazaars. Keeping this in view, the government has decided to provide healthcare and medical services to the people by sending medical team to haat-bazaars.
Chief Minister Haat-Bazaar Clinic Scheme was started as pilot project in the month of June in Bastar and forest areas of other districts, where mobile team of health department including doctors with necessary equipments used to reach haat-bazaar and provide health checkup facility as well as medicines to the people there. Moreover, on-spot blood-test and other pathological tests are being provided by this team at haat-bazaars. This scheme has been received well by the people of remote forest areas.
Under this facility being provided in weekly haat-bazaars, OPD has increased by 5-10 times in these areas. Keeping in view the promising results, government has decided to launch this pilot project as a full-fledged state-wide scheme on the occasion of 150th Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
Considering the positive results of the health check-up and treatment facility being provided by mobile medical teams in haat-bazaars, Chhattisgarh Government has decided to provide this facility in urban slums as well. In slum areas of 13 municipal corporations in the state, mobile medical teams will be available from 8am-2pm to provide health-checkup facility and free medicines. On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanati, Chief Minister Urban Slum Health Scheme would be launched.
It is noteworthy that nearly 1. 71 lakh families live in slum areas. To provide proper health check-up and treatment facility to nearly 7. 80 lakh people of these families, Chief Minister Urban Slum Health Scheme is being launched.
To provide food security to all the families of the state, Universal PDS Scheme will also be launched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti.
Under this scheme 'priority ration card holders will be provided food grains as follows- single member family 10 kg rice per month, two-member family 20 kg rice per month, 3-5 member family 35 kg per months, family with 5 or more members 7kg rice per member per month at the rate of Rs 1/kg. Food grain allotment for 'priority' families has been increased under the scheme by nearly 22 thousand ton. Under Universal PDS, APL families (tax-payers and non-tax-payers) have been included, who will be provided food grain supply as follows- single-member family 10 kg rice per month, 2-member family 20 kg rice per month, family with 3 or more members 35 kg per months at the rate of Rs 10/kg.
To ensure immediate availability of public services and to provide facilities as per the demands of people, Chief Minister Ward Office Scheme is being started in the cities.
In the first phase, these ward offices would start function in 13 municipal corporations of the state, from October 2. Through these offices, time-bound redressal of the complaints related to cleanliness, environment, streetlights, road maintenance, drainage cleaning, water supply etc would be ensured.
These offices would also provide facilities such as issuance of new trade license, license renewal, property tax payment, water tax payment, integrated tax payment, community hall reservation, official sources said.
In Municipal Corporations with a population of three lakh or above, one office for two wards would be opened and for Municipal Corporations with population of 2-3 lakh, one ward office for three wards would be opened.