Niti Aayog, the policy think-tank of the Government of India, recently released the crucial delta ranking for the month of January 2021. This ranking measures the incremental progress made by the aspirational districts- there are 112 of these spread out in India for this ambitious project.
Now what caught everybody’s attention was that four aspirational districts of North-East India bagged five top spots. And Kiphire, a backward district of Nagaland about which not many would have heard outside of the state, bagged the second place.
Kiphire district is so remote that is about 14 hours away from the nearest railhead and about 10 hours away from the state capital. Being situated in a hilly area, many villagers of the district remain cut off from the rest of the state during the monsoon.
While compiling its Delta Ranking, Niti Ayog takes into account the monthly rankings as per the improvement made by 112 districts all around the country, across six different indicators. Eighty-one points are tracked under the Aspirational District Programme, which includes themes like health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure development
THE DEVELOPMENT
All the six indicators have a specific percentage on which the improvement is tracked. The health and nutrition sector being the most important consume 30 percent of the ranking. Same goes for the education sector which also consumes 30 percent of the ranking. Rest four indicators such as agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion, skill development, and basic infrastructure consume 20 percent, 5 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent accordingly.
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, the Deputy Commissioner of Kiphire, Mr. Ajit Kumar Ranjan said, “Kiphire is a small backward district in the state of Nagaland. As the ranking is based on the improvement made in various districts, Kiphire stood out in the health and nutrition theme which led us to bag the second spot in the latest ranking. The rest of the sectors are still in the progression stage.”
“The outcome in the health sector and the efforts made by people are very directly related. The efforts put in by the medical staff and the administration was bound to reflect in the outcome of delta ranking,” he added.
A good delta ranking is mainly driven by the health sector performance, where Kiphire bagged the first position with a score of 60.3. This was the best ever performance made by this small district since the inception of the programme.
INTERVENTION IN HEALTH
Mr. Ranjan, while speaking about the development made in the health and nutrition sector, said “The major intervention we did in the health sector, which led us to top the ranking, is regarding the Ante Natal Care (ANC) registration for pregnant women. The registration went up from 60 percent levels to about 100 percent.”
Under the ANC registration, field kits were distributed to boost it and facilitate the contact between pregnant women and health care provider. With help of CSR from Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), digital Hemoglobinometers, hand held Doppler and portable ultrasound has been provided down to sub-centre levels. They are utilised on Village Health & Nutrition Day (VHND) in each village.
Mr. Ranjan said, “Apart from this, another major initiative which led us to the excel the health and nutrition indicator was the vaccination drive.”
VACCINATION AND UPGRADATION OF DISTRICT HOPITAL
Vaccination activities in the district were intensified under the Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) and VHNDs. With the aid from REC CSR, Vaccine Storage infrastructure has been strengthened in remote and difficult areas to reach. These developments were intensively monitored and reviewed which led to the improvement in immunisation figures.
District Hospital has also been strengthened in the district. It has been provided with various equipments which were not available or lying dysfunctional, like X-ray machines, RVG, Oxygen Generator, Lab equipment, etc. The HUDCO CSR fund was utilized for this purpose.
LIVELIHOOD INTERVENTIONS
After the rankings were released, CEO of Niti Aayog Mr Amitabh Kant lauded the efforts made by the four district of North East India which led them to top the Delta Ranking. He also gave special credit to Kiphire for taking livelihood initiatives, which are now improving the standard of living of people in the district.
While talking about the livelihood initiatives taken by the district administration, Mr. Ranjan said “Piggery is a very important source in the district. However, the production in the district is very poor as it doesn’t have access to piglets. To manage this, we took the initiative of starting a project on pig breeding farm through the CM’s Corpus Fund, which was lying unutilized for a long time.”
Pig breeding farms are being set up in the district to provide subsidised and locally available piglets on a sustainable basis. Also, a pig feed-making unit which can supply quality feed with appropriate mineral mix has been established in the district.
