RANCHI: The state health department jpoined hands with a US-based non-profit organisation to launch the ‘Covid Mukt Gaon’ programme under the Samriddhi project to make nearly 3,000 villages in Ranchi and East Singhbhum districts Covid-free by generating awareness about the importance of vaccination for the kids.
The post-Covid complications of the affected would also be taken care of.
The government and ChildFund representatives attended the pre-launch meeting held here on Monday.
Programme field officer of NGO ChildFund, Ashray Ekka, said, “We will generate awareness about the importance of vaccination for children through community programmes across 1,460 villages in Ranchi and 1,500 villages in East Singhbhum. Also, we will upgrade 60 PHCs and CHCs in both the districts.”
Ranchi and East Singhbhum have had the highest number of Covid-19 cases. In the past two years, Ranchi has recorded 11,38,39 cases and East Singhbhum 69,781 cases. As of May 24, Ranchi had 12 active cases and East Singhbhum zero.
The NGO also plans to enhance healthcare services in rural areas by capacity-building of the state-run facilities as well as by providing medical equipment and developing state-of-the-art wards in rural healthcare centres.
“There has been a significant change in the behaviour of kids as they were confined to homes during lockdown. We are going to develop state-of-the-art child wards as well as day-care centres at the PHCs and the CHCs,” Ekka said.
Ranchi civil surgeon Dr Vinod Kumar said, “This is a good step. We will provide the necessary support to anyone who comes forward to help us extend our facilities in rural areas. We are delighted that USAID is going to fund the model child wards and support us in vaccinating the kids.”
The pre-launch event included a panel discussion. Healthcare specialists said that children have developed several mental health issues amid the pandemic and stressed upon developing proper infrastructural facilities for childcare in the post-pandemic era.
Pratibha Pandey, senior program manager (child health) at ChildFund, said, “People, in general, have faced several mental as well as physical health complications during the past two years. Right now, they are recuperating while also experiencing post-Covid complications. So we are trying to strengthen the healthcare facilities in rural areas and our priority is children.”
