Background
Chatra district is one of the aspirational districts in the country, with the baseline ranking of 59th out of a total of 115 backward districts, identified by NITI Aayog. Under aspirational district, there are different sub-sectors, wherein ‘Health’ is one of the major sub-sector having 30 percent weight. Chatra district is surrounded by 60 % of forest coverage and lack of accessibility, affordability, and availability of basic services is one of the key reasons for it’s under development, especially in the health domain.
Health is a major component for human development and it is not accessible to the majority of the population of the district. The current state of health infrastructure in the district is not adequate as Chatra has 1 District Hospital, 6 Community Health Centers (CHC), 8 Primary Health Centers (PHC) and only 93 Health Sub Centers (HSCs); having a strength of 28 regular Doctors and 8 contractual Doctors, over a total population of 10.42 lakhs, inhabiting in 1474 villages.
Most of the villages are remotely located and connectivity & accessibility to the nearest health facility at the time of distress is a major issue. To address the issue of accessibility and availability of basic medicines at the village level, the District Administration has started an innovative mechanism to provide a medical kit “Arogya Kunji”(Sahiya Upchar Kit) at the village level.
Arogya Kunji
“Arogya Kunji” is a small bag, having medicines and essential health utilities like contraceptive, sanitary pads etc., which is being given to each SAHIYA (ASHA worker). The kit contains general medicines for common health ailments for children as well as elders, which can be obtained over the counter without any prescription.
This can be a trendsetter to improve the access to health scenario. The kit is being given to each ‘Sahiya’ (ASHA) at the village level.
The District Administration, with the active support and initiative of Aspirational District Fellows is implementing this project in ‘Convergence’ mode. The District Administration has implemented this initiative in 3 blocks through ‘DMFT’ fund and in rest of the blocks through ‘MPLADs’ fund.
The cost of one kit is Rs. 1870 (One thousand eight hundred and seventy rupees only). A total of 1609 nos. of “Aarogya Kunji” are being distributed to each.