BHUBANESWAR: Odisha became the first State in the country to get ISO certification for its tribal hostels. In the first phase, 44 hostels of Keonjhar and Sambalpur districts have been accorded ISO 9001:2015 Certification.
The certification was awarded basing on the quality of amenities available for scheduled category students residing in hostels set up by ST and SC Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare department.
Sources said all 156 hostels in Keonjhar and 90 hostels in Sambalpur were taken up for assessment. Of those, 60 hostels in Keonjhar and 12 in Sambalpur were selected for intensive interventions of gap filling.
The district teams complied with the conditions of quality certification in three months while the audit team was able to visit 32 hostels in Keonjhar and 12 in Sambalpur before the lockdown in March for final assessment.
All the 44 hostels qualified the assessment parameters and were awarded ISO certification. The remaining 28 hostels will be assessed post-lockdown.
Encouraged by the results, the ST-SC Development department is taking up evaluation and assessment of hostels in 10 more districts in Phase II.
“All other hostels would be equipped with basic amenities, equipment and infrastructure in coming months,” said Director of the department Guha Poonam Tapas Kumar.