A portal set up in June to track how Covid-19 is being managed in the rural areas now shows that four lakhfrontline workers and two lakh volunteers have been drafted to fight the pandemic at the grassroots level.
Called the Covid-19 dashboard and managed by the Panchayati Raj ministry, the portal has data of the over 2.5 lakh panchayats that India has and shows that 45% of them have set up health and sanitation committees.
The dashboard was set up after the second wave of the pandemic with the idea to prevent another devastating wave from wreaking havoc.
“Different states have adopted different strategies to manage Covid. Even within the state, districts have taken different approaches. Similarly, at the panchayat level, some have focused on handwashing campaigns, others may have resorted to creating WhatsApp groups or wall paintings to make people aware about social distancing,” said a senior official of the Panchayati Raj ministry, on condition of anonymity.