Kerala may shortly have over three lakh Kudumbashree Response Teams (KRTs), a community-driven initiative at the level of Neighbourhood Groups (NHGs), covering over 45 lakh families to blunt the impact of any potential third wave of the pandemic.
The Statewide initiative has been undertaken as a COVID Mission project. It will be a continuous programme since the larger objective goes beyond COVID-19 and aims at equipping the community to face future epidemics, disasters, or natural calamities.
The five-member KRTs for each NHG are likely to be in place by July-August. They will be tasked with creating awareness based on scientific knowledge and extending assistance to the needy in coordination with various agencies, including local bodies.
Awareness campaigns
“This is the latest in the series of the pandemic-centric awareness campaigns being carried out by Kudumbashree. This follows 16-odd online sessions held in association with the Indian Medical Association, the Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA), and the Health Department and over 23 lakh calls made by our NHG office-bearers under a chain-call campaign. The latest initiative will be fully community-driven with weekly experience-sharing sessions at the grassroots-level to assess the efficacy,” said Harikishore S., executive director, Kudumbashree.
KILA has brought out a handbook as part of the campaign, which will have State, district, and local body-level teams and resource persons to take it to the households in each NHG.
“In Ernakulam, we have a district-level core team of 16 resource persons who have been given charge of 14 block panchayats and the Corporation. Two resource persons each will train the 7-member executive committees of the Area Development Societies who in turn will reach out to the response teams at the NHG-level,” said Renjini S., district mission coordinator, Ernakulam.
The support groups
The community-level support system of Kudumbashree has been activated for the programme by roping in members of Kudumbashree Auditing and Accounting Society members, micro-enterprise consultants, former Kudumbashree office-bearers and even former people’s representatives — the idea being that they will have better grassroots-level connections.
A strategy has been devised to assess the efficacy of the programme in an engaging way like holding quizzes. Audio and video clippings over social media and phone calls will be used to further the campaign.
