The second wave of the Covid19 pandemic hit the nation quite hard. However, with the news of a reduction in positive cases and an increasing rate of recovery, people have finally started heaving sighs of relief.
Governments of several states have also gradually begun unlocking their districts and allowing light movement of people. The Burhanpur district of Madhya Pradesh has come up with a unique evidence-based unlock strategy, under the leadership of District Administration and CEO Zila Panchayat Ms. Aditi Garg, which will be based on several parameters.
In an exclusive conversation with Indian Masterminds, Ms. Garg told us about the strategy in detail.
‘GRAM SURAKSHA PRABANDHAN SUCHKANK’ (GSPS)
The unlock strategy is primarily devised for Gram Panchayats after the Madhya Pradesh government mandated the existence of a ‘crisis management committee’ in each gram panchayat (GP).
The committee comprises local leaders and representatives of grassroots democracy at every GP level. They were advised by the government to discuss unlock and to what extent should it be done, depending on several local factors.
“But when we spoke to them, we realized that they had absolutely no idea what those factors should be. They were not updated with the vaccination drives and active cases in their district. Therefore, we decided to develop a methodology to help these people,” Ms. Garg told Indian Masterminds.
METHODOLOGY FOR UNLOCK
Ms. Garg planned a methodology to guide the GP authorities and help them in better understanding of their panchayats as well as the Covid19 condition that might enable them to make the right decision.
“We developed a methodology whereby we will provide data-based decision making for gram panchayat crisis management committee and will also encourage healthy competition, in terms of comparisons. We thought of publically declaring data so that the people are able to see where they stand. This will help them in making the right choices depending on the available data,” said Ms. Garg, who is a 2015-batch IAS officer.
THE PARAMETERS
Burhanpur launched an index to empower grassroots communities to plan their lock/unlock strategy. It’s based on data, which had five indicators reflecting how prepared they were to deal with the pandemic.
These parameters are:
- The existence of crisis management committees and their active participation.
- No active cases in gram panchayat. “The lesser the number of cases, the higher the score,” pointed out Ms. Garg.
- Undertaking vaccination at a massive scale.
- Grassroots citizenship engagement.
- Encouraging Covid appropriate behavior.
“The whole point of the exercise is not just to ensure that people don’t contract the disease but also making them aware that being cautious and avoiding the third wave is entirely in our hands,” Ms. Garg told Indian Masterminds.
SUCCESSFUL COVID19 STRATEGY IN BURHANPUR
With the determined efforts of District Collector Mr. Praveen Singh Adhayach and CEO Zila Panchayat Ms. Aditi Garg, the control on Covid19 in the district has been commendable, resulting in zero positive cases since the past week and a positivity rate of 0.1.
“Our district has 50% tribal and 50% minority population; therefore there was a lot of skepticism and hesitancy regarding vaccination. We launched an aggressive strategy of vaccination and now the people are coming forward to get the jab with such gusto that it has even impressed the Chief Minister who congratulated us for the achievement,” stated Ms. Garg.
The officer cleared that they haven’t imposed the strategy on gram panchayat levels and they are still in the initial stages of managing the crisis. They have unlocked the entire Burhanpur as they have absolutely no positive cases in the district as of now. “We want them to be empowered enough to make data-based decisions,” she explained.
Burhanpur has now topped the five rate target of the state in vaccination and is receiving praises from the Government as well as the Chief Minister.
