After recovering from the second Covid wave, public participation is now helping fight dengue and chikungunya.
Bhopal: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to numerous deaths and exposed the miserable state of the health system; besides, it has led us to adopt such new habits as wearing masks, practicing social distancing, sanitisation etc, and also being watchful of the behaviour of those near us. However, in Madhya Pradesh, the pandemic has led to a “different way” to deal with such a situation. Adopting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra—aapda me awsar (opportunity in disaster), Madhya Pradesh has developed its own system. After recovering from the second wave of corona, now this system is becoming a way to fight vector-borne diseases like dengue and chikungunya.
The concept of public participation (PP) in democracy was conceptualised by architects of our Constitution. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan devised a strategy to use people and the system coming together for a common goal as an “opportunity in disaster”. He not only developed his new “PP” model of dealing with disaster by dropping a “P” from the “PPP” (public-private partnership) model of development, but also he successfully used it in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, which once seemed almost impossible to overcome, particularly during the second wave. Unlike the PPP model of road, dam and building construction, Shivraj Chouhan’s PP model has only public’s key partnership with the government.
Under the PP model, people were involved in the fight against the disease without expecting any financial benefit. They were made aware of their capabilities and the abundant youth power of Madhya Pradesh was fully utilized by the government in disaster management. When the second wave of corona was spreading rapidly, the central government, wiser by its experience during the first wave, refrained from using its weapons like lockdown and entrusted the states with the power to impose restrictions as per their circumstances.
Then, on the basis of his vast administrative experience and wisdom of a mass leader, Shivraj Singh Chouhan left the idea of imposing restrictions on the public. Thus, Madhya Pradesh is the first state which formed its Crisis Management Groups from the village, wards, blocks, districts to the state level under Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s unique public participation model.
Public representatives and influential people in their respective regions were added to these committees along with the administration. If the lockdown was to be imposed in any locality or village, then the Crisis Management Group of the locality or village took the decision in this regard. The group decides what to keep open and for how long. These groups were engaged in making people to follow Covid protocols besides a door-to-door survey. Their strictness and persuasion to people yielded positive results.
Another big experiment was to select corona volunteers. About one lakh and fifty thousand volunteers of every age and class joined the “I am a Corona volunteer” campaign and started doing all the work for which the government would have needed a large number of health workers. From testing to vaccination, their participation in every campaign or war against corona was decisive. As Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan continued to encourage them from time to time through video conferencing and sometimes through radio-TV messages—this experiment of public participation was so successful that none else than the Prime Minister also saw the presentation on the concept with officers of the Central government and advised other states to replicate the same.
Amidst preparations to combat the third wave of corona, now Madhya Pradesh faces vector-borne diseases like dengue, chikungunya and also viral fever. Several districts are affected by the diseases. Hence, Shivraj Chouhan has once again decided to use his tried and tested formula of public participation (PP) on the ground. On Wednesday, he sprayed insecticide with fogging machine in hand in Bhopal to kill mosquitoes. Not only this, he distributed pamphlets, put up posters and launched the “Dengue Se Jung-Janta Ke Sang” campaign while also releasing mosquito larva-eating gambusia fish into the water. After this, he called upon people in the tribal-dominated district Alirajpur to participate in fighting dengue. As he is known for his humility as a leader, Shivraj Chouhan always pleads with folded hands, requesting people to get the corona vaccines. With this, his request has a new line: “I have come not as Chief Minister but as a member of your family to make this sincere appeal to keep alert against dengue and adopt preventive measures; Get 100% vaccination for corona and continue to follow the precautions against corona.”
Shivraj Chouhan says that the state government and its agencies are continuously active. “As we have controlled corona in Madhya Pradesh, we will also defeat dengue with the cooperation of the people. Dengue will get defeated and Madhya Pradesh will win.”
The CM adds: “When people are together, even impossible tasks become possible. People of Madhya Pradesh have actively participated in the fight against corona. When the public was added to the vaccination campaign, a new record was created. We have decided that whether there is a fight against dengue or any other challenge, we will fight with participation of people in the battle.”
(The author is India News Resident Editor in Bhopal)