Gajapati: Wings of Transformation Born Out Of KAYAKALP
Bhagabat Padhy,Odishabarta
Gajapati: Proper hygiene and sanitation help to keep diseases and infections at bay. Diseases can be prevented to a large extent if every person on the planet practises good hygiene. Safe water, sanitation, waste management, and sanitary conditions are critical for preventing and protecting human health during all infectious disease outbreaks, including coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). One must keep hygiene in mind because it is a vital quality of the community. Focusing on the importance of hygiene is one of the simplest ways to eliminate a wide range of diseases and infections. It is not an exaggeration to say that hygiene and sanitation are the foundation of a healthy and happy life.
The Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Shri J P Nadda has launched the ‘Kayakalp Award Scheme’ on May 15, 2015, as an extension of ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’. The initiative aimed to improve and promote the cleanliness, hygiene, waste management and infection control practices in public health care facilities and to incentivize exemplary performing facilities. Initially, assessments of the facilities were undertaken in six broad thematic areas, namely -Hospital/ Facility Upkeep, Sanitation & Hygiene, Waste Management, Infection Control, Support Services and Hygiene Promotion. Subsequently “Beyond Hospital Boundaries” was added to the assessment tools in the year 2017-18. In the year 2021 a new theme called “Eco-friendly Health facilities” was added to the existing Kayakalp assessment.
In the year 2021-22, the Gajapati district made an incredible result in Kayakalp Award for its health institutions. The district has always tried to achieve, implement and maintain the standards of all the policy initiatives of the Government. For this year i.e; 2021-2022 Gajapati district had achieved new heights by getting nominated in all CHCs(Community health care centres)/DHH(District headquarter hospital) which is considered the greatest achievement in the history of Gajapati which was made possible because of the leadership of the Collector & DM Gajapati, Shri Lingraj Panda, IAS and the collective effort of the doctors, health workers and people of the district.
The district had sent 35 nominations including PHCs and Sub Centers across all the blocks. The Kayakalp award goes through three phases of rigorous assessments namely internal, peer and external assessments as per the mandate of Govt. of India. The result for the year 2021-22 was declared on 29th March 2022 by the Health & Family Welfare Dept. and CHC-Chandragiri got first prize in the Eco-friendly category among all CHCs of the State. For the first time, 90% of our CHCs and DHH got the Kayakalp award with better ranks such as DHH in 4th position in the State, 2 CHCs in top 20 rank and remaining CHCs within 75 ranks out of 173 Kayakalp qualified CHCs. Gajapati district became the only district in the state to conduct Energy Audit from BEE(Bureau of Energy Efficiency) certified Energy Auditors for all CHCs and DHH.
With the active support of district administration, in Eco-friendly category such as E-waste management, Energy Efficient facility, 3R (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), the district managed to work out of the box to secure the top position.
There has been an enormous contribution from UNFPA consultant, Pradeep Kumar Panda, and DPM NHM, Soumya Rani Gouda, from the district in coordinating the said activities. The district has witnessed a sea change in face-lifting, cleanliness & hygiene of its health institutions after the keen involvement of the Collector Shri Lingraj Panda, IAS throughout the journey of Kayakalp.
