Soon, PDOs to issue birth, death certificates at GPs

In an important step for decentralisation and service delivery, birth and death registration will now be done at the gram panchayat (GP) by the panchayat development officers (PDOs). Karnataka has 5,962 GPs.

This is expected to offer greater convenience to residents of rural areas.

Till now, births and deaths were registered at the village accountant level, who is part of the revenue department.

Additionally, the decentralised screening will be introduced at around 3,200 GPs this year for anaemia, non-communicable diseases (NCDs), under-nutrition and mental health.

This was initiated in 2,814 GPs last year under the Gram Panchayat Arogya Amrita Abhiyaana (GPAA).

Principal Secretary of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) department L K Atheeq told DH that a government order has been issued authorising PDOs to act as additional registrars to register births and deaths.

“First, we need to give publicity to this fact so that the public visit PDOs and second, we need to train PDOs for this,” Atheeq said. The PDOs’ training will begin this month, he added. “The village accountant currently issues birth and death certificates or a hospital does if the birth is in a hospital. The interaction of the people with the GPs is high. Hence, we will get a better picture of the mortality rate if they are authorised to register. Our Panchatantra software will be used and it will be linked to the eJanma portal,” Atheeq said.

The RDPR department has launched GPAAA with the help of the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust.

Under this programme, each GP was given a health kit funded by donors. The kit includes consumable lab sets and if any anomalies are seen in tests, the residents will be referred to a community health centre or district hospital.

ASHAs (Accredited Social Health Activists) and Anganwadi workers were trained to use this kit. it helped them gauge sugar levels, and oxygen saturation, get an ECG and test for anaemia done.

“This programme was launched last year in some GPs. Covid was the trigger for it. But the programme also screens NCDs like diabetes, and hypertension, along with monitoring nutrition levels. For the remaining GPs, health kits have been sanctioned and we will roll out GPAA for them this financial year,” he said. The screening will be done via house-to-house visits, GP medical camps and village visits.

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