Rangametia village unit conducted a survey and found that a large number of villagers, mostly from scheduled tribe and very poor, do not have any caste certificate to get the benefits of the Govt. welfare schemes. The B.D.O. office is about 15 KM away. Besides cost of travel, these daily wage earners misses a day's salary to go there. Also their ignorance on filling-up of forms and providing supporting documents add to the problem.
The NSS, IIT Kharagpur unit working there arranged special caste certificate camp in that village with the help of SDO, BDO, Govt. inspectors, Panchayet Pradahan, officials from Panchayet and local community leaders. A training was conducted on 25.2.2012 in presence of Jt. B.D.O. We had overwhelming response on scheduled 18th March camp. The Govt. officials were kind enough to agree to our request and have another camp there on 14.4.2012. They also agreed to have a third camp on 01.4.2012 at another backward community (mostly of Lodha tribe) village named Soladahar where another NSS, IIT Kharagpur unit works.
The NSS volunteers arranged photocopy machines, hired photographer and arranged a make-shift studio in Rangametia village for this camp and also helped in filling-up of forms and assisted govt. officials in various activities. It had been a great experience and a great privilege to be able to serve those who need it the most.
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