City Pulse

Urban areas are right in the centre of the coronavirus vulnerability with high-density settlements, mobility, and interactions between people. As the pandemic continues to test the government’s resilience, the BBMP has launched a decentralised campaign with active citizen participation to tackle the rising numbers of COVID 19 cases effectively.

The 198 ward committees of BBMP will function as Disaster Management committees. As the wards are quite large with populations ranging between 50,000-100,000, management of the pandemic will be conducted at the next level of governance – The Polling Booths. Each ward typically has 30-50 booths, representing around 1500 people and 400 homes each. Booth Level Committees (BLC) with citizens and officials are small on-ground operational units providing information and support to citizens on COVID 19. The main objective of the ward and booth level management is to reduce fatalities with active citizen participation.

The Booth Level Committee operations will:

COMMUNICATE AND CARE 

• By creating awareness about the pandemic within the ward


• Promote the use of mask/face cover, physical distancing, and sanitation.


• Improve cleanliness and hygiene in the ward, Prevent the spread of fake news, rumours, and panic


• Help in de-stigmatising those affected by the disease and help people in need of care & support. 

CONDUCT HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SURVEY AND MONITORING 

• Collate household wise data


• Monitor the health of individuals with people suffering from Influenza-like illness (ILI) and SARI. Ensure that they get treatment in the Fever Clinics on an emergent basis.


• Maintain records and monitor the health of pregnant women & elderly and those with co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac, urinary & severe other life-threatening diseases.


• Help citizens access health care through PHCs, Fever Clinics and COVID Care Centers.


• Ensure home quarantine of COVID positive patients within the jurisdiction of the Ward Committee. Correctly test the primary contacts.


• Ensure easy access of CCC / COVID hospital/telemedicine to asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic patients. 

COLLABORATIVE FUNCTIONING

• Work with any civil society or non-governmental organisation that is willing to support the ward committees.


• Work with the teams and conduct contact tracing in identifying primary and secondary contacts.


• Follow up on adherence to the home quarantine of the primary and secondary connections.


• Build ward-based appropriate support systems for the COVID pandemic 

The decentralised and collaborative governance effort by BBMP will help mitigate the overwhelming effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. The approach involves ward committee meetings, where citizen representatives, activists and local elected representatives conduct meetings in each ward. The objective of the meetings is to review the work of the BLC’s, take stock and monitor primary and secondary contacts. Use of appropriate technology platforms for information sharing will strengthen awareness among government officials, health care centres, local elected representatives and citizens. Finally, citizen participation and volunteering will provide a robust and sustainable system to fight this public health emergency.