THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bolstering the state’s preparedness against the spread of epidemics during monsoon, the Local Self Government (LSG) Department has come out with a dedicated web portal called ‘Suchitwa Jagratha’.The portal, where field-level health workers can update information regarding the house visits and public visits they made, efforts carried out to eradicate and prevent vector-borne diseases, will help health and LSG departments to keep a tab on the health scenario.
According to an officer with the LSG Department, web portal like this will help oversee the prevention drive activities being carried out across the state. “Earlier, we have to rely on the hard copy provided by the health department to access the status of the health condition and cleanliness drive being carried out at a given area. It takes time before the hard data arrive us. But now with ‘Suchitwa Jagratha’ in place health workers could update the status on a real-time basis,” said M P Ajithkumar, additional director, department of panchayats. Direction has been issued to the respective local bodies to update the web portal on a daily basis. The biggest take away of ‘Suchitwa Jagratha’ is the timely intervention of authorities concerned in cases of emergencies, the additional director said.
The portal is designed, developed and maintained by Information Kerala Mission with assistance from State Data Centre.“The content to be provided in the Suchitwa Jagratha web-platform will rely on the pre-monsoon survey. In this initiative, each local body has been asked to designate an officer at each ward to oversee the survey activities. It has also been decided to conduct four rounds of surveys for getting a clear picture,” Ajithkumar said.
The health department had planned to launch a mobile app to document the distribution pattern of infectious diseases in the society. As per the plan Arogya Sena workers, Asha workers and health workers were to alert via app when they come across a case of infectious disease. However, the app plan remained a non-starter.
Total number of houses in the state - 15,82,022
Number of houses visited by health staffs - 16,003
Total number of public places - 1,92,456
Number of public places visited by the health staffs - 492
Number of Cleanliness Squads formed in the state - 21,456