Orissa: Call for BPL covergae for PLHAs

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ORISSA NGOS, ACT NOW! INCLUDE ALL WILLING PLHAS IN THE NEW BPL LIST:

ACTIONAID ORISSA

In the wake of a recent announcement by Orissa government that Persons Living

with HIV and AIDS (PLHAs) would be given due priority in the new BPL list,

ActionAid Orissa calls on all NGOs to put in their best efforts to include all

willing PLHAs in the list.

A state-wide revised BPL list, based on the 2002 household survey, will be out

in Orissa in January 2010, announced the Panchayati Raj Minister Orissa on 6

October 2009. ST and SC families, women-headed households,daily-wage earners,

families having disabled children and People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLHAs)

will be given due priority during the validation and inclusion, the Minister

emphatically added.

Village-wise draft lists of the eligible households, as identified in

the 2002 survey, will be displayed in Gram Panchayat offices during

15-30 November. Eligible households not appearing on the list and

seeking inclusion will be asked to present their cases before the

Panchayats.

New applications would be collected using a certain L-02 form, and would need to

be approved by palli sabha. A special palli sabha would be convened for this

purpose on a day during 1-15 January 2010. Meanwhile, government officials will

examine the veracity of the households during 1-15 December.

Orissa BPL List Finalisation Time Line

Display of draft list at Panchayats for validation and inviting new

claimants

15-30 November

Physical verification by govt officials

1-15 December

Convening of special Palli Sabha for approval of new claims

1-15 January

Announcement of final list

31 January 2010

In Orissa, each BPL family is entitled to 32 benefits. Presently, there are

close to 4.5 million BPL families in the state. However, as

indicated by the Planning Commission, 38 lakh may become the cut-off

number.

" Immediate steps need to be taken in each village to identify those

PLHAs who are willing to be included in the new list so that proper

advocacy could be done with the Panchayats to this effect " , said Shri

Niraj Mishra, Advocacy Coordinator, Orissa AIDS Solidarity Forum.

" We urge upon all NGOs and CSOs to alert their community outreach

workers to this development and press them into service on a priority

basis for identifying all willing PLHAs before the onset of December " , said

representatives from ActionAid International.

ActionAid's HIV work in Orissa reaches out to more than 600 villages in 240 GPs

from 6 high-prevalence districts.

ActionAid Orissa

Santosh Padhy

e-mail: <santosh.padhy@...>