Aspirational Districts Programme: MP’s Barwani shines in national conference of chief secretaries

BHOPAL / Barwani of Madhya Pradesh shined at the top rank in the country in a presentation of the Aspiration Districts Programme (ADP) shared by the NITI Aayog before Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the All India Chief Secretaries (CSs) Conference in Himachal Pradesh’s Dharamshala on Thursday.
The National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog presented the list of best-performing Aspirational Districts in which the progress of the works on various indicators suggested by the Centre has been excellently registered.
In the best performing districts’ list, Barwani secured fourth and fifth positions from the top in reducing the dropouts rate from primary to upper primary school level and in increasing the percentage of institutional deliveries to total estimated deliveries respectively. Besides, the district achieved the third position among all states and Union Territories of the country in enhancing the regular vaccination in the 0-11 months age group kids. Performing superiorly, the district jumped the state average (83) and secured the best value 92 for Madhya Pradesh in this field.
A three-day CSs conference is being held in Dharamshala which was addressed by PM Modi on Thursday during his tour to HP. The collectors of the Aspirational Districts attended the meet virtually.

Barwani has a 70 per cent tribal population and has been included in NITI Aayog’s ADP which was launched in January 2018 aiming to quickly and effectively stimulate local development and transform most backward 112 districts across the country based on the 49 key performance indicators spread across sectors, the major indicators are Health and Nutrition, Education, Agriculture and Water Resources, Financial Inclusion and Skill Development, and Basic Infrastructure.
According to the recent release report of the National Family Health Survey-5, the percentage of institutional delivery has reached 85.1 from 50.7. A marked increase has also been registered in health-seeking behaviour among the tribal populations in the district.

“We have taken several initiatives and introduced some holistic programmes such as ‘Mission Ummeed’, ‘Mamata Brigade’, ‘Khilona Banks’ and ‘Pahunch Abhiyan’ etc. to gear up the works on ADP’s performance indicators focusing on Health and Nutrition and Education sectors,” collector of Barwani Shivraj Singh told The Sun Today.
“The district could get achieved this position in health and education sectors due to a dedication of the officials and a daring commitment of the field-level staff of the concerning departments of the district,” the collector said.
The district has recently achieved a prestigious Skotch Award-2022 for increasing institutional deliveries and reducing infant mortality and maternal mortality rate in the district.