Centre to mobilise 1 lakh NGOs for fight against Covid

NEW DELHI: The Centre is planning to mobilise the support of more than one lakh civil society organisations (CSOs) and NGOs across the country to fight the Covid-19 surge and has urged states to enlist their participation. The move has been prompted by the stellar role played by such entities in the first wave last year in combating the spread of the virus.
Government thinktank Niti Aayog has written to state chief secretaries and urged them to ask district magistrates to mobilise all CSOs to help in ensuring Covid-appropriate behaviour, use of masks, physical distancing as well as help in spreading the message about vaccination.
“Community participation at field level is key. Every village, panchayat and district should collaborate with civil society organisations to fight the virus,” said Amitabh Kant, Niti Aayog CEO, who heads one of the empowered groups. In his letter to states, he said CSOs have contributed immensely by supplying food to the needy, distributing masks, creating awareness, providing shelter and healthcare facilities, developing communication material and their engagement would definitely add value to government’s efforts.
The CSOs and NGOS have carried out a number of activities and the need to mobilise them comes against PM Narendra Modi’s emphasis to all stakeholders for micro containment zones which would help stop the spread of the infection locally and help avoid a national lockdown. The empowered group would prefer local administrations to identify hotspots and depute volunteers with a specific focus on the elderly, people with disabilities, children, transgenders and other vulnerable groups.
Another key initiative that CSOs and NGOs have been asked to take up is sensitising the population about the need to use masks even if vaccination has been done. Kant also urged NGOs and CSOs to use the toolkit on the mask campaign to spread awareness vigorously
“Masks are social vaccines. Mask up and save the world,” Kant added.