Welfare mission

The District Collector initiates a welfare programme to improve the quality of life of the poor and needy.

ABHILASHA, the flagship programme of the West Godavari district administration, has brought all-round cheer to the poor and downtrodden. District Collector G. Vani Mohan, who conceived of the initiative as a trust in support of better hospitals, hostels, animal health and disabled welfare, has been drawing support from different walks of life. From people's representatives to corporates to ordinary housewives, everybody has added their mite to the corpus fund of the programme. When I started the project, I had virtually no money. Now, support is pouring in from different sections of society, Vani Mohan told Frontline.

The programme aims at improving the infrastructure of and medical equipment with the primary health centres (PHCs), the community health centres (CHCs), the area hospitals and the veterinary dispensaries in an attempt to ensure quality life for the poor. Three Lok Sabha members representing the district Kavuri Sambhasiva Rao (Eluru), Kanumuri Bapi Raju (Narsapur) and Undavelli Arunkumar (Rajahmundry) have contributed Rs.30 lakh from the Member of Parliament Local Areas Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds to purchase ambulances and start blood banks in Bhimavaram, Jangareddygudem and Eluru. Some housewives of Eluru have raised funds through kitty parties for the programme. GAIL has offered Rs.11 lakh for strengthening the veterinary hospitals.

Most of the health centres and veterinary dispensaries in the district are plagued by poor facilities. Moreover, the economically backward people are not in a position to receive quality health services from the private dispensaries. Abhilasha intends to give a facelift to all the 73 PHCs, 19 CHCs, three area hospitals, 14 veterinary hospitals, 86 dispensaries, 103 rural livestock units, and 117 social welfare hostels housing 27,000 students in the district, the Collector said. She said that 30 per cent of the hospitals did not have doctors while 50 per cent of them had no specialists. The district administration is planning to provide better facilities in the hospitals with an assistance of Rs.50 crore from the National Rural Health Mission.

The programme aims at providing artificial limbs, tricycles, wheelchairs, hearing aids, crutches, calipers, walking sticks and Braille slates (for the visually challenged), blood storage units, ultrasound equipment, ventilators, incubators, oxygen cylinders and surgical equipment in the PHCs and the CHCs, and artificial insemination facilities in the veterinary dispensaries.

Abhilasha also aims at creating a home away from home for students staying in the government hostels by improving basic amenities and comforts there and providing water filters, toilets, bathroom blocks, drainage facilities, fans, and so on.

The trust will help poor meritorious students passing out of schools run by the government and the local bodies and provide them with quality education and financial support. Similarly, it will enable meritorious students staying in social welfare hostels to get admission in premier institutions. Education and health are my focus areas, the Collector said. The administration is planning to create a health profile of all schoolchildren from classes I to X in the district. The children will undergo a series of screening tests such as blood tests and haemoglobin tests as part of the programme.

The administration is contemplating the development of a software to monitor the performance of 12,000 teachers in 4,000 schools as part of the drive to improve the quality of teaching and learning. Abhilasha has also come as a blessing for prison inmates. The programme plans to bring prisoners into the mainstream by promoting skill development in a slew of trades. It is proposed to hold a series of training programmes for them as part of the endeavour.

The Abhilasha programme was launched on June 8, 2011, also to give a fillip to the dairy industry in the district. The Milk Mission was launched with funds from the Abhilasha programme to provide protein-rich food to below poverty line families by increasing their per capita milk consumption, which is 120 ml as against 260 ml recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO). As part of the endeavour, milk production is proposed to be increased to three lakh litres a day. The present production of 1.2 lakh litres is hardly sufficient to meet the requirements of the 39 lakh-odd people in the district.

According to the Collector, the Department of Animal Husbandry is making efforts to procure 5,000 milch animals from Haryana. It is also proposed to establish 27 bulk milk cooling units across the district. Abhilasha tries to mobilise funds to improve infrastructure facilities, such as inpatient sheds and trevis sheds, in the veterinary hospitals.

The district administration has proposed to upgrade the animal disease diagnostic laboratories located in Eluru. The proposal is intended to improve the health of livestock in West Godavari, East Godavari and Krishna districts and ensure sustainable milk production.

Milk production in the region is falling in view of the prevalence of virulent diseases, such as the foot-and-mouth disease, reported in milch animals for want of early diagnosis and quality treatment.