In digital push, data of 68mn to go online
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan health department is going digital. The health and demographic profile of all 68 million citizens of the state will be available online which will help in better framing and targeting of government schemes, officials said.
The ambitious project will be launched on a pilot basis from February 1 in five districts of Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Sikar and Udaipur, said additional chief secretary Rohit Kumar Singh, the brain behind the initiative.
If all goes well, it will be rolled out across the state from April 1, he added. He said the data will be used under the Nirogi Rajasthan programme to track people’s health and give targeted health and other welfare schemes.
The government also plans to launch a Citizen App which people can use to put their medical records and health profile online so it is available for easy reference. It will also be linked to a call centre where people can get advice regarding their health from experts.
Singh said the department tried a pilot in Srimadhopur and Govindgarh blocks in Sikar district where data of 700,000 people was collected. The survey was carried out for around five months from July 2018.
“Our aim is to have data online so the health department will have data of all citizens in the digital format. With this record, the government can better plan and offer need based services to people,” said Singh.
“Another aim was to reduce the work of the frontline service
ROHIT KUMAR SINGH, Additional chief secretary
providers such as accredited social health activists (ASHA) and auxiliary nurse midwives (ANM) in the field. A lot of their time was waste in data collection instead of doing their core work. They have to collect data multiple times and then have to note it down in registers,” he said.
“Now their work will become paperless. They will use the Nirogi Rajasthan app in their smartphones to collect the data and send it to the central data centre where it will be stored.”
The ANMS and ASHAS in Srimadhopur and Govindgarh blocks were given training to use the app to collect the data. The app has a set of about 280 questions that need to be asked. It will be filled online and sent to the data centre,” he said.
Singh said the health workers will be given a yearly SIM charge and one time incentive of Rs 3,000.
The data being collected is exhaustive. It has the health profile according to the region, community, gender, economic group and caste which can then be used to provide services in a targeted manner, said Singh.
“For instance, if a particular region has prevalence of a particular disease, the department can provide services there. Or if a particular age group or caste group shows prevalence of a particular disease, it will help the department in framing targeted policies and treatment,” he said.
He said later other departments such as social justice and empowerment, education, women and child, panchayati raj, can use the data for planning schemes and providing services.
The data has details on the source of fuel used by families, the type of vehicle they own, the type of house, source of water and economic status. “This can help in group stratification to provide services,” said Singh.
The government plans to launch a Citizen App which people can use to put their medical records and health profile online. It will be linked to a call centre where people can get health advice from experts.