Surakshit Hum Surakshit Tum Abhiyan: Aspirational Districts | 09 Jun 2021

Why in News

Recently, NITI Aayog and Piramal Foundation launched ‘Surakshit Hum Surakshit Tum Abhiyan’ in 112 aspirational districts.

• This drive was launched to assist the administration in providing home care support to Covid-19 patients, who are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms.
• Most of these districts are in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

Key Points

• About:
  
  • The campaign is under a special initiative – Aspirational Districts Collaborative – in which local leaders, civil societies and volunteers will work with the district administrations to address emerging issues across key focus areas of the Aspirational Districts Programme.
  • It will be led by district magistrates in partnership with over 1000 local NGOs, which will enlist and train over 1 lakh volunteers to connect with patients through inbound/outbound calls.
  • Volunteers will be trained to support 20 affected families each by educating caretakers to follow protocols, provide psycho-social support and timely updates about patients to the administration.
• Objective:
  
  • It is aimed to reach every affected person in these 112 districts.
  • The campaign is expected to play a key role in district preparedness for managing nearly 70% of Covid-19 cases at home, reducing pressure on the health system, and stemming the spread of fear amongst the people.
  • It will provide long-term support to India’s poorest communities in the Aspirational Districts by addressing the lasting impact of Covid-19.

Aspirational Districts Programme

• About:
  
  • It was launched in January 2018, the ‘Transformation of Aspirational Districts’ Programme (TADP).
  • Aspirational Districts are those districts in India that are affected by poor socio-economic indicators.
  • These are aspirational in the context, that improvement in these districts can lead to the overall improvement in human development in India.
• Ministry:
  
  • At the Government of India level, the programme is anchored by NITI Aayog. In addition, individual Ministries have assumed responsibility to drive the progress of districts.
• Objective:
  
  • To monitor the real-time progress of aspirational districts.
• Focus Areas:
  
  • ADP is based on 49 indicators from the 5 identified thematic areas, which focuses closely on improving people’s Health & Nutrition, Education, Agriculture & Water Resources, Financial Inclusion & Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.
  • With States as the main drivers, ADP seeks to focus on the strength of each district, identify low-hanging fruits for immediate improvement, measure progress, and rank districts.
• Broad Contours of the Programme (Triple-C):
  
  • Convergence (of Central & State Schemes) which brings together the horizontal and vertical tiers of the government.
  • Collaboration (of Central, State level ‘Prabhari’ Officers & District Collectors) which enables impactful partnerships between government, market and civil society.
  • Competition among districts driven by a spirit of the mass movement fosters accountability on district governments.

Source: TH