Fight against Covid: State trains about 8K people of SHGs under Gram Panchayats
Kolkata: The state Panchayats and Rural Development department is for the first time providing training to 8,000 heads of self help groups (SHGs) under the Gram Panchayats to combat the COVID-19 pandemic at the ground level.
The training has been provided on line by the BR Ambedkar Institute of Panchayats and Rural Development, Kalyani. It is being provided to the Sangha Netris.
It may be mentioned that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has urged all sections of the state government to combat the pandemic. The state government has so far spent Rs 2,500 crore to combat COVID-19 and set up 87 hospitals, 32 state run and 55 private health care establishments to treat Corona patients. Dibyendu Sarkar, director of the training institute said those who have received training will impart it to the other members and they will go to the rural populace to create awareness. There are
more than 55,000 villages in Bengal. The trained SHG members will teach the villagers about the dos and don'ts of COVID-19 and ward off the fear of the disease. Senior officials said: "The way the media is making people scare of the disease, it has reached the village population also. It is often found that the village people are more obedient that their counterparts in the city and if they are requested to wear masks and wash hands they do follow the instructions. As Corona has not reached the villages the way it has affected the cities, the training is likely to yield good result."
The Sangha Netris will be given training in Dengue awareness. They will impart the training to the other members who in turn will go to the villages and tell the
people about the dos and don'ts. Dengue is generally
an urban disease but some
rural people have also been inflicted with the disease recently.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the virtual meeting has instructed all the civic bodies to take proper measures to tackle Dengue.
The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has chalked out elaborate plans to check spreading of the
disease.
