| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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There were two issues before administration awareness of beneficiary schemes of the Government for eligible poor who are residing in remote areas of the district and disbursement of the quality services in stipulated time. Government introduced many schemes for the people who live below the poverty line but it did not reach to all who lives in remote areas especially where population is scattered in hamlets and even if they are aware they even did not know the procedure to avail that benefits they are entitled and eligible for. To address these issues, district administration devised program called "Jan Suraksha Shibir" that literary meaning "Public Welfare Camp" and for that entire district's villages were divided into clusters consist of 5-7 villages and entire service delivery mechanism is established at this cluster point to disburse quality services quickly. An officer entrusted had to cover all 5-7 villages for assessment of eligible beneficiaries and these beneficiaries were informed about the schemes they were entitled to. The documents were collected and processed beforehand and they were informed to visit the cluster village where such camp was organised. The dates of such camps for entire district were widely published in advance from district level to village level to hamlets. On predefined day, all departments with their team establish temporary counter to disburse their services as and when beneficiaries of the cluster villages come. As beneficiaries were identified in advance and documents etc were processed earlier only final service was delivered in the camp. If any person who missed out and visit the camp, arrangement also made to process and verification of his/her documents on the spot. The system was established for each different services and the officer in charge ensured that service is delivered to each beneficiaries. This serve the purpose of covering entire poor and needy persons of the district for whom schemes introduced by the Government.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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The District Administration has devised and implemented the initiative "Jan Suraksha Shibir" in entire District. It reached out to population of 16,42,268 of the District and its two phases of implementation 1,19,743 persons were served in one way or other.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The District Administration devised strategy to strengthen service delivery mechanism to reach out to the poorest who lived in remote area of the district. District is comprised of 605 villages. These villages were divided in small cluster of 5 to 7 villages and each cluster is entrusted to the Guardian Officer who is to look after these villages for all Government Programs and services. Guardian Officer along with other department officials did prior assessment of the eligible beneficiaries of these villages who can avail the services at cluster level. Once assessment was done, procedures were initiated for the services like filling up the forms, supporting documents like proof of income, proof of age etc. Providing such documents to those who are not having it, separate team of official and staff deployed. In case of physically challenged prior assessment of disability was done and according to disability the specialist doctors were sent in the camps. They diagnosed percentage of disability on the spot and certificate for disabilities distributed to the beneficiaries. For Old Age Pension scheme age proof is required. In remote area there are many cases where birth was not registered with Government some sixty years back. To ascertain age medically, doctor issues certificate after checking the person for approximate age and those who have certified for eligible criteria were given order of monthly financial assistance. Monitoring was done by in charge officer – Guardian Officer and District level officials. Man power deployed, for a day, was from the department concerned with the welfare schemes like Health and Family Welfare Department, Social Welfare Department, Department of Social Defense and Justice, Revenue Department. No further financing required for this initiative as it only devised as alternative service delivery mechanism. No formal evaluation was done.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The initiative devised as alternative to current service delivery mechanism and it was devised and implemented by administration by its officials. The idea was mooted by the District Collector in monthly review meeting with all department heads of the district and explored possibility to devise the mechanism to reach out to the poor of the remote area. Based on grievances received by the district administration in various forum about non-receipt of certain benefits and services, district administration in consultation with heads of concerned departments prioritize schemes and services which is most required and the least delivered like Health Card who covers for serious illness in multispeciality hospitals, the district health officer and his teams were engaged. As for disability, officers of Department of Social Defense and Justice in coordination with Medical Doctors engaged for ascertain disabilities for financial assistance to physically challenged persons.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The initiative termed successful as in two phases of its implementation nearly 69,712 persons were served in one way or other. Moreover it almost cover all potential beneficiaries who were entitled to have benefits of particular scheme as all villages of the cluster were proactively assessed by the Guardian Officer or officer in charge for Jan Suraksha Shibir for that cluster.
It widen the health-net among the persons living below poverty line who can avail treatment at subsidized rate in multi-speciality hospital in serious illness like cancer, kidney failure or heart problems which they could not afford otherwise.
It also covered 1,591 widows who were eligible for financial assistance in terms of monthly pension that could support her family.
Jan Suraksha Shibir covered 2,053 beneficiaries who were living below the poverty line and eligible for old age assistance that augmented their livelihood.
2,929 physically challenged persons were diagnosed by the doctors for various disabilities and assistance in terms of free bus pass, financial assistance for education for physically challenged students etc were given.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The main challenge was to reach out to the poor in remote areas. To assess the eligible who are left out and unaware about schemes. It required both activities information dissemination to the last hamlet and then assessment of the eligibility. Teams were assigned prior to the date of "Jan Suraksha Shibir" and team not only inform and educate the villagers about their entitlement but also initiate procedure like filling up forms, whether they have sufficient documents or not and if not ascertain they obtain necessary documents to have them entitled for actual beneficiary scheme. This process required some time as team has to reach door to door for schemes like health card, old age pension, widow pension and disability assistance. But once all beneficiaries were accounted for then later process became very easy. It was done by forming team consist of village official as well as department official and staff.
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