Pune: State govt officials have raced against time to roll out the Mukhyamantri Mazhi Ladki Bahin Yojana announced by deputy chief minister and finance minister Ajit Pawar in the 2024-25 state budget. From setting up war rooms, help centres, and WhatsApp groups for technical support, to working 16-hour days , teams from anganwadi sevikas to senior govt officers ensured timely processing of over one crore forms for the scheme to roll out on Saturday at a grand event in Pune’s Shree Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi. Kalpana Pawar, anganwadi sevika from Khopi village in Bhor, went beyond her capacity to ensure that women get the benefit.
Over the last one month, she filled out nearly 200 forms, often working odd hours to get the job done. She said, "Internet connectivity was a big problem. I worked in the mornings in the anganwadi and followed it up with my daily data entry tasks.
I would fill the Ladki Bahin forms late at night." Pawar completed all her work on her cellphone and ran into challenges like uploading photos and documents due to poor connectivity. She created a WhatsApp group for the beneficiaries.
She would call when the connectivity improved as she needed their OTPs. She added, "I would call the women at 2am or 3am because the server was faster during those hours. My family was fed up, but I wanted to help the women.
" Pune District Women & Child Development Officer Jamsing Girase said detailed steps were taken to ensure smooth implementation in Pune district. “Starting from July 3, we issued instructions to block development officers, tehsildars, and child development project officers to work on mission mode," he added. Villages set up a comprehensive network.
Anganwadi sevikas, gram sevaks, community resource persons from women self-help groups, and Setu Kendra in-charges who were computer literate were all tasked with data entry. “We also empowered people to download the app and fill out forms on their own," Girase added. Local leaders, including sarpanchs, nagarsevaks, and politicians took up awareness camps, with officials offering assistance.
Across Pune city, 23 help centres were established, while rural areas saw 1,385 help centres and 4,392 booths in anganwadis. "If technical issues arose, they were reported via WhatsApp and they were escalated to the district-level technical support team for swift and seamless resolution," Girase added. Scrutiny of the applications began on July 28 and continued until August 5.
"We checked 9,74,101 applications, of which about 80,000 were partially rejected but approved after required corrections. Only 3,649 were rejected due to unmet conditions like lack of a ration card or exceeding the income threshold as mentioed," Girase added. The volume of applications was huge.
Each taluka received around 12 login IDs for scrutiny, while Pune city got 35. "Each login ID could be used by three people simultaneously, allowing us to manage the workload more effectively," Girase added. War rooms were set up in all talukas.
"We had 30 computers in each war room, manned by anganwadi sevikas, supervisors, and zilla parishad clerks. With two 8-hour shifts, teams were dedicated solely to scrutinising forms for the scheme," he said..
