Nadia District's Door-to-Door Outreach Drive Enhances Tribal Welfare Enrollment

The district administration of Nadia has initiated an outreach program under the state-run Duare Sarkar program to enroll tribal community members through a door-to-door drive. This is because, despite year-round intensive campaigns, a large number of tribal members remain unaware of the government's social welfare schemes.

Beginning on Monday at the Ranaghat subdivision, district administration representatives visited each tribal home in the block to identify those who were eligible but had not yet taken advantage of government benefits.

Authorities concentrated on collecting data on migrant labor, issuing tribe and caste certificates, Swasthya Sathi cards, pensions for the elderly, and Lakshmir Bhandar. Officials discovered that a large number of beneficiaries were either unaware of them or had not received their full benefits.

In order to find qualified recipients who are not currently receiving assistance, officials have so far visited a number of tribal homes in the Nadia district's Santipur, Ranaghat, and Hanshkhali blocks.

SDO Ranaghat Raunak Agarwal stated that numerous Duare Sarkar camps had already been organized at subdivisions and mobile camps, along with other awareness initiatives held. Agarwal personally visited several tribal households in Aarpara village of Santipur and Santipur to note down the names of residents missing government benefits.

However, a sizable portion of the tribal population has not yet been able to participate in all beneficial programs for which they qualify. In actuality, we were unable to inform the public about the benefits that the Duare Sarkar and the government of the state had to offer, he acknowledged, despite our best efforts.

"We conducted some random surveys in some belts and found that many people are not enrolled under various welfare schemes simply because of their ignorance," said the SDO.

"So, as an independent programme under Duare Sarkar we have conceived an outreach to visit every household in remote tribal belts in a bid to include every eligible person," said the SDO.

He said that a series of inquiries had been prepared in order to pinpoint the shortcomings of the framework that excluded a number of tribal members from the protection of the welfare programs.

About 120 of these homes were visited by Ranaghat subdivision officials on the first day of the drive. Since then, the process has continued. The beneficiaries received quick fixes as much as possible.

According to officials, it was frequently discovered that tribal women were only receiving Rs. 500 under Lakshmir Bhandar rather than Rs. 1,000 in the absence of a Scheduled Tribe certificate. Under the scheme, women belonging to Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Castes are eligible to receive Rs 1,000 per month.

The official stated, "We fixed this so that the tribal women can receive Rs 1,000 per month."

On Monday, a few tribal women, including Sundari Munda and Gita Munda, learned about Lakshmir Bhandar. Gita also learned about pensions for the elderly. Their enrollment applications were immediately accepted by the officials.

The state government has expressed concern over the relatively inadequate integration of tribal people in welfare schemes, according to sources in Nabanna.

"At this time, there is no precise data on those excluded from welfare programs. However, primary reports fall short," the source claimed.

In order to ensure that eligible beneficiaries of all 24 government schemes have access to them, Chief Secretary H.K. Dwivedi asked districts to mobilize efforts in backward tribal areas during a Duare Sarkar meeting last year. He requested that authorities launch extra awareness campaigns in the tribal belts.

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