In one day, 33-year-old Chandrashekhar Sarwa rides his motorcycle to a government hospital, a slum, a chawl, a housing society and an independent bungalow in Raipur city to bring people the government documents or services that they need.
Sarwa is one of 135 executives working for Chhattisgarh government’s Mitaan Yojna, which was launched to help people obtain government documents and services by making a phone call from home and paying a fee of Rs 50.
To call a Mitaan executive home, residents dial a five-digit, toll free number that connects to a centralised call centre with 15 employees. Once someone makes a call, they are told to keep the required documents ready for the service they need. Then, they are given an appointment for a visit by a Mitaan executive to their house. The executive will collect required documents from the applicant’s house, make copies, and initiate service. If the application was for a government document, the executive picks it up from the department concerned and delivers it to applicant’s home.
Started in May last year, Mitaan Yojna was set up at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore. It employs 150 people, and has served 1,40,802. The scheme is currently available only in the state’s urban areas.
There are 24 services that can be availed through Mitaan.
These include linking mobile number with Aadhaar; enrolling a child (up to age 5) in Aadhaar; getting certificates of birth, domicile, marriage, death, and caste; PAN card; ration card; copy of land record; registration of marriage, shop/establishments, unorganised labour; land information and further corrections and updates in all these documents.
On a September day, The Indian Express joined Mitaan executive Sarwa as he prepared to visit the homes of six different people, either to collect copies of their documents or to deliver the documents they applied for.
The day began with Sarwa rushing to DKS hospital where 24-year-old Sanjay Sidar, a power loom worker, wanted to urgently get his ailing brother’s mobile number linked with Aadhaar in order to avail free healthcare under the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme. While there, other patients also asked Sarwa about linking their numbers with Aadhaar.
“Just yesterday, I helped a few patients with this, and now they have Ayushman cards. I will come back again in a few days and help others. The receptionist has my number, and he gives it to all the patients who need the service,” Sarwa said.
His second stop was at a housing society where 53-year-old Moti Jain, an educationist, needs a domicile certificate urgently so his son can apply to a law college.
Sarwa then headed to Trimurti slum, where Ashish Naik was looking to get an Aadhaar card made for his two-year-old daughter, Jarina. They need the card so that Jarina’s name can be added to their below-poverty-line ration card, which will enable them to get more rice for family.
But when Sarwa reached the spot, Naik was not at home, so he was given a different appointment. Sarwa headed to home of another slum-dweller, to whom he delivered a birth certificate.
He then left the slum and headed to the bungalow of Dimple Kodwani, who was waiting for her daughter’s birth certificate in order to get a passport made. “The first time, even though the response was fast, there was a spelling mistake. So, I had to call him again. But this time, the appointment got delayed by 15 days. The scheme is good and I will call them again if I need any more certificates. Sometimes, we do not have knowledge on what all documents are needed for something, so this service is helpful. I heard about the scheme on the radio,” Kodwani said.
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Sarwa’s last stop was at a chawl, where Lachi Chura wanted to add his son’s name to the ration card to get more rice. Chura said, “Some months ago, we were informed about this service when we went to the municipal office. We had called the number a few times, but it was busy so we gave up. Now, my brother-in-law called him and he is here to help. The service makes things easy.”
With his day’s work done, Sarwa expresses his satisfaction. “This job offers me love, respect and a chance to serve society. I am happy. In all earlier jobs, the payment was not fixed, and it was just money in exchange for service,” he said. At this job, he gets paid Rs 13,000 a month.
Mitaan Yojna CEO Saumil Chaubey said the service will soon be extended to cover even more parts of the state. “We started the scheme in May last year with 14 municipal corporations in the state. Presently, the Yojna is available in all municipal corporations and municipal councils in all the 33 districts in Chhattisgarh. In the next phase, we have plans to extend it to all nagar panchayats.”
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