The Prime Minister Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) and the Telangana government’s Aarogyasri must be re-purposed as an effective policy that would help save lives and economy during the present COVID-19 crisis.

A study by University of Hyderabad (UoH) has found that the portability modalities due to lack of MoU between the State and Centre had affected in dealing with the present situation.

The study revealed that, on the positive side, the health department has been successful both in identifying and controlling the local spread of COVID-19 within communities. It also found that the migrant management was facilitated effectively and the office of the municipalities was able to identify the migrant workers and send them back to their native places, a press release from UoH said.

The study, taken up as part of the University Grants Commission’s (UGC) directive for a comprehensive understanding on community awareness of COVID-19, covered 342 households with 36 field investigators of the varsity involved.

Further, it said leadership of the local self-government and health department also assisted the affected communities to undertake home quarantine for the civilians, who travelled from outside to their areas.

In matters of sanitation and cleanliness, incredible work was visible on the ground but there were some limitations in the domain of conducting awareness programmes and door-to-door surveys to trace the positive cases.

On the work front, farming and dairy activities were not affected compared to non-farming informal sector. However, the survey said housing facilities, enabling working conditions, nutrition and livelihoods still needed urgent attention from the State, specifically for the marginalised sections.

The respondents also revealed the benefits and entitlements like food security schemes and old-age pensions were being made available to the communities.

Five villages in the surroundings of UoH — Tellapur, Osman Nagar, Kolluru, Velmula and Vattinagulapally — were surveyed. The core team of the university in the survey included Phanindra Goyari, Krishna Reddy Chittedi, B.R. Shamanna, T. Apparao, Asima Jena, V. Srinivasa Rao and Ashish Jacob Thomas.