What does a bureaucrat do when he has wants new ideas to solve a problem? Obviously, he convenes a meeting for brain storming and hopes to get new ideas there.
Amit had convened that meeting with his 7 BDOs and the Sabhapatis (the elected head of the Local Self Panchayat of the Panchayat Samiti at the Block level). Also present were the Executive Magistrates at the Subdivision and the ACMOH. The health officials at the block level were not present as it was expected that the meeting could turn out more of a fire fighting exercise if they were there.
Amit set the ball rolling with the condition that he was not looking for easy excuses but sincere suggestions.
The initial moments belonged to the ACMOH who proudly informed about his meeting at the state capital where he had been summoned and finally congratulated for a bare 60% but genuine vaccination in three days (as against the previous drives which had reported figures of 100% plus coverage). But that had also earned an extra polio drive for Warpur alone in the whole state on one of the weekends.
The most extrovert BDO began with what he had been asked not to do i.e. complaining against the health department. His point was that since the public were not getting the regular health services, their dissatisfaction was resulting in poor response for the polio drive. He continued to say if the campaign had incorporated the Anganwadi workers, the confidence of public and the result of the drive would have been different (it turned out to be the most useful suggestion).
The Sabhapati of the same block said that he would not stop from criticizing his own brethren i.e. the politicians, who were afraid to come out openly in favour of the polio campaign under the fear of the religious leaders.
The Sabhapati of the neighbouring block, a lady, started narrating her experience of the last drive when she had pulled one of the panchayat members out of hiding after he had threatened and driven health volunteers away from his areas.
Then another BDO suggested that the campaign should be broad based. The administration should involve school teachers in the drive. But many people objected to it since the teachers were already involved in a number of activities they might not agree to any additional duties
One of the magistrates suggested that to ensure that more children reported at the booth on day one, the campaign should involve senior school children to bring young kids to the polio booths. Class IX and Class XI students could be issued certificates of appreciation for this work and it could be considered part of their community service course.
Then there were pointers to update the performance of the health department, including the number and name of children below 5 years. It was clear that this had been avoided as quoting more children could get more remuneration for volunteers, training etc. Similarly a record of the vehicles deployed could increase the mobility of the supervisors and take vaccine to the volunteers early in the morning. That was relevant because due to delay the vaccine became ineffective, as visible on a sticker on the bottle.
Those were all good points. Amit was thinking how to go ahead and implement those. It was decided to have a block level monitoring committee with the BDO, BMOH, Sabhapati and the CDPO. This could rope in the resources of most of the people functional at the grassroots. There was supposed to be a Government employee for every 10 booths (besides the health staff) who would be personally responsible for ensuring coverage in the booths.
The senior most BDO then suggested that the campaign could be effective only if the big industrialists or the ‘bidi houses’ were involved in favour of campaign. Warpur happened to be the biggest producer of hand rolled cigarettes (bidi). Since the local economy was mostly based on bidi rolling, the people who ran the industries actually provided livelihood of over 600,000 people of the subdivision. But the issue was that whether they will or why they will come in favour of such a campaign and go against the religious sentiments.
Still many people present were of the opinion that when one talked of the opinion makers and leaders of the society in Warpur there was none who was more prominent than the managers and ‘munshis’ of the bidi companies.
The other view was that the reason why Warpur was so severely affected by polio was due to ‘bidi’ industry. Since children, women and even pregnant women rolled bidi almost everyone had no defense to any sort of virus. And the spurt of polio virus was possibly due to low resistance.
When contacted over telephone, the manager of the largest bidi company suggested Amit to hold the first meeting in a smaller company to gauge the temperament and build base before directly involving the biggest group. He himself was convinced, being from the minority community that the issue was mostly of ignorance. His suggestion was cautious but positive.
Only one of the BDO was willing to organize a candle rally with school children in his block to raise awareness for attention building. To most it appeared to be an immature step for such a campaign. However, all the blocks agreed to organize a meeting in their blocks with the Head masters of the schools so as to request them to give a message on polio during the daily prayers.
One of the blocks was to start the campaign with a large meeting with Panchayat members to sensitize the political functionaries. The District Sabhadhipati (head of the district local self Government, and of the rank of a minister) was to be invited to talk on the seriousness of the issue and Amit assured that he would request the District Magistrate to also attend that meeting.
They also agreed to have a polio booth on all the bus stands as it was reported that parents were shifting their children to the bordering neighbouring state during the campaign dates.
Amit was excited about the initiative that his team was taking. However, the senior magistrates forewarned him that the whole exercise might soon fall flat if the health department was not activated fast. There were many grey areas and the whole team was at best ‘hopeful’.
Amit had convened that meeting with his 7 BDOs and the Sabhapatis (the elected head of the Local Self Panchayat of the Panchayat Samiti at the Block level). Also present were the Executive Magistrates at the Subdivision and the ACMOH. The health officials at the block level were not present as it was expected that the meeting could turn out more of a fire fighting exercise if they were there.
Amit set the ball rolling with the condition that he was not looking for easy excuses but sincere suggestions.
The initial moments belonged to the ACMOH who proudly informed about his meeting at the state capital where he had been summoned and finally congratulated for a bare 60% but genuine vaccination in three days (as against the previous drives which had reported figures of 100% plus coverage). But that had also earned an extra polio drive for Warpur alone in the whole state on one of the weekends.
The most extrovert BDO began with what he had been asked not to do i.e. complaining against the health department. His point was that since the public were not getting the regular health services, their dissatisfaction was resulting in poor response for the polio drive. He continued to say if the campaign had incorporated the Anganwadi workers, the confidence of public and the result of the drive would have been different (it turned out to be the most useful suggestion).
The Sabhapati of the same block said that he would not stop from criticizing his own brethren i.e. the politicians, who were afraid to come out openly in favour of the polio campaign under the fear of the religious leaders.
The Sabhapati of the neighbouring block, a lady, started narrating her experience of the last drive when she had pulled one of the panchayat members out of hiding after he had threatened and driven health volunteers away from his areas.
Then another BDO suggested that the campaign should be broad based. The administration should involve school teachers in the drive. But many people objected to it since the teachers were already involved in a number of activities they might not agree to any additional duties
One of the magistrates suggested that to ensure that more children reported at the booth on day one, the campaign should involve senior school children to bring young kids to the polio booths. Class IX and Class XI students could be issued certificates of appreciation for this work and it could be considered part of their community service course.
Then there were pointers to update the performance of the health department, including the number and name of children below 5 years. It was clear that this had been avoided as quoting more children could get more remuneration for volunteers, training etc. Similarly a record of the vehicles deployed could increase the mobility of the supervisors and take vaccine to the volunteers early in the morning. That was relevant because due to delay the vaccine became ineffective, as visible on a sticker on the bottle.
Those were all good points. Amit was thinking how to go ahead and implement those. It was decided to have a block level monitoring committee with the BDO, BMOH, Sabhapati and the CDPO. This could rope in the resources of most of the people functional at the grassroots. There was supposed to be a Government employee for every 10 booths (besides the health staff) who would be personally responsible for ensuring coverage in the booths.
The senior most BDO then suggested that the campaign could be effective only if the big industrialists or the ‘bidi houses’ were involved in favour of campaign. Warpur happened to be the biggest producer of hand rolled cigarettes (bidi). Since the local economy was mostly based on bidi rolling, the people who ran the industries actually provided livelihood of over 600,000 people of the subdivision. But the issue was that whether they will or why they will come in favour of such a campaign and go against the religious sentiments.
Still many people present were of the opinion that when one talked of the opinion makers and leaders of the society in Warpur there was none who was more prominent than the managers and ‘munshis’ of the bidi companies.
The other view was that the reason why Warpur was so severely affected by polio was due to ‘bidi’ industry. Since children, women and even pregnant women rolled bidi almost everyone had no defense to any sort of virus. And the spurt of polio virus was possibly due to low resistance.
When contacted over telephone, the manager of the largest bidi company suggested Amit to hold the first meeting in a smaller company to gauge the temperament and build base before directly involving the biggest group. He himself was convinced, being from the minority community that the issue was mostly of ignorance. His suggestion was cautious but positive.
Only one of the BDO was willing to organize a candle rally with school children in his block to raise awareness for attention building. To most it appeared to be an immature step for such a campaign. However, all the blocks agreed to organize a meeting in their blocks with the Head masters of the schools so as to request them to give a message on polio during the daily prayers.
One of the blocks was to start the campaign with a large meeting with Panchayat members to sensitize the political functionaries. The District Sabhadhipati (head of the district local self Government, and of the rank of a minister) was to be invited to talk on the seriousness of the issue and Amit assured that he would request the District Magistrate to also attend that meeting.
They also agreed to have a polio booth on all the bus stands as it was reported that parents were shifting their children to the bordering neighbouring state during the campaign dates.
Amit was excited about the initiative that his team was taking. However, the senior magistrates forewarned him that the whole exercise might soon fall flat if the health department was not activated fast. There were many grey areas and the whole team was at best ‘hopeful’.
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