While we come across story of Corona Warriors every now and then. Simdega’s story is quite different and unique. The day lockdown was announced in Jharkhand, ‘Monitoring and Surveillance Committees’ were constituted at all the three levels, i.e. District, Block and Ward Level, in the district. Around 3,165 individuals who came back to Simdega from outside were put under home quarantined on March 23 this year.
Deputy Commissioner Mrityunjay Kumar Baranwal added, “Multi-layered Monitoring Mechanism helped us in avoiding error in reporting and also enabled us in tracking movement of every individual across the district.” A six-member ward-level monitoring committees comprising of (teachers, Anganwadi sevikas, ASHA workers, ANMs, PDS workers, ward members) were constituted in all the 1,119 ward of the district.
They did household-level survey to estimate ration requirement for their respective wards. Their job was also about staying updated with present status of home-quarantined individuals and updating the same to block- and district-level monitoring committees. They also kept the district-level committees updated with individuals who moved in their wards from outside. Within four days of lockdown, ‘Quarantine Centres’ were developed at block and district levels, and all individuals who were home-quarantined got shifted. Individuals who crossed the district’s border shared with Odisha and Chhattisgarh after April 3 were directly placed in quarantine centres.
The ‘Block Level Monitoring Committees’ were placed at 2nd layer of the mechanism and were headed by respective block development officers. BDOs were given power of incident commanders which gave them enough power to take decision on their own without staying too dependent on DC and SP for each and every decision. Next in the layer was ‘District Level Reporting Cell’, which was headed by the Executive Magistrate Shehzad Pervez.
There was a team of 80 teachers working under him whose responsibility was to stay updated with the current status of home-quarantined individuals with the help of their respective ward-level committees. These teachers called the ward committee on a daily basis to collect information about quarantined members. The Essential Services and Procurement Cell was headed by the additional collector which ensured that all medical equipment, PPE, oxygen cylinder, mask, gloves, thermal scanner, infra-red thermometer were procured and made available at health care
centres and quarantine centres.
The Law and Order Cell was headed by Sub-Divisional Officer who sealed all the entry-exit points across the district and made all incoming individuals first checked with the help of medical team and then sent them to quarantine centres. SDO also looked after the implementation of Section 144 in the district and made sure that ‘Social Distancing’ norms were not violated anywhere in the district, with the help of the ‘Special Vigilance Team’ of ten senior officers who reported directly to the DC. Their role was to check smooth functioning of law and administration across the district.
The Deputy Development Commissioner himself looked after the ‘Vigilance Cell’ which looked after functioning of all 41 quarantine centres at block and district level. It was his duty to ensure adequate availability of amenities and services and also to keep check on quality of food given to the individuals quarantined in these centres. Newspaper was being circulated to each and every quarantined member so as to keep them entertained and engaged, in order to avoid any upcoming frustration and feeling of getting annoyed.
The local private Biru Hospital was turned into a COVID Hospital with a capacity of 20 bed initially and expandable up to 50 beds. Further, a local tailor was hired to stitch PPE using plastic, mask and cloth so as to procure locally produced PPE. Aspirational District Fellows in the district, Aseem Sinha and Bishwambharnath Naik, utilized this inspiring story to influence ‘Aavishkar Foundation’, which later funded for providing PPE, N-95 mask, gloves, etc. to five districts of Jharkhand.
Further, the Deputy Commissioner and the Superintendent of Police visited different villages and places themselves randomly, to create awareness and keep the administrative staffs and public motivated and hopeful.
The administration already resumed MNREGA works after ensuring that proper health and safety protocols are followed as per norms of Social Distancing. While the In-Situ toilet construction work has been going on, it is yet to start rolling out on campaign mode.
With 3,118 self-quarantined individuals initially, further added with a load of additional 1,050 individuals in quarantine centres, Simdega today has just one active case. Today, the district has 64 individuals (mostly pregnant ladies) home quarantined and 555 in quarantine centres. In Simdega, triple-layered monitoring mechanism has definitely helped in controlling the crisis and saving lives.