Children below five, from AES-affected families, to be enrolled in Anganwadi centres
A presentation was made before chief minister, Nitish Kumar, on the findings of a socio-economic survey conducted on 538 families affected by Acute Encephalitis Syndrome.
The Bihar government has decided that Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES)-affected families, who could not avail benefits of Pradhanmantri Gramin Awaas Yojana, will be covered by the state-run Mukhyamantri Awaas Yojana. The government has also decided to recognise the dilapidated houses built under Indira Awaas Yojana and extend the benefits to those families as well.
A presentation was made before chief minister, Nitish Kumar, on the findings of a socio-economic survey conducted on 538 families affected by AES. The state government's ‘Jeevika’ project was tasked to conduct the survey in June. A total number of 204 children died of AES while as 933 cases were reported from various hospitals across the state.
Briefing about the findings during the course of presentation, Jeevika's chief executive officer Bala Murugan D said, that the survey covered 538 affected families in five blocks of Muzaffarpur district apart from other AES-affected districts. The CEO said an action plan has been proposed for the five worst affected blocks of Muzaffarpur.
The detailed socio-economic survey was conducted at Kanti, Bochaha, Meenapur, Musahri and Motipur blocks of Muzaffarpur. It looked into a whole gamut of government initiatives, including convergence of government programme and families untouched by government welfare schemes.
On the basis of the survey, it has been decided that all children below the age of five would be enrolled at Anganwadi centres within three months besides ensuring availability of ration cards for the affected families. Kumar directed the officials to build toilets for these families by August 31, the affected families should be attached with self-help groups, all affected households should be covered under ‘Har Ghar Jal Yojana’ and ensure vaccination of the children.
Kumar had earlier said that a survey of this sort, along with a survey of sanitation status in AES-affected regions will help in finding long-term solutions to the disease especially after reports have indicated that most of those who were affected by AES came from poor background.
It is widely believed that hunger and malnutrition, are some of the main reasons for the disease.
The findings of preliminary survey undertaken in some affected districts came as an eye opener for the government as it revealed that AES had affected the poorest strata of people. The affected families lacked nutrition, immunisation, health-care support under Ayushman Bharat, girl child insurance, availability to foodgrains through public distribution system (PDS), ration card, dwelling under Indira Awaas Yojana etc.
