Shubha Ghose, is a MA, Sociology student from Bachhoda village, around 35 kms from district headquarters at Tikamgarh. A selfdriven individual with a zeal to learn and help fellow community members, she has been associated with SRIJAN since 2019. While the Sociology degree college at Tikamgarh doesn’t require her to undertake field work as part of its curriculum, she has been gaining hands-on knowledge of working in development by helping community members of her own village. She believes that this is the perfect combination of theory meets application. Her parents are small holders and practice sustenance agriculture. She lives with her parents and 2 siblings.

In June 2019, she first associated with SRIJAN as a Gram Sakhi. In this role, she was responsible for mobilising women in Self Help Groups, regularising savings, and overseeing implementation of agricultural projects of SRIJAN. She helped formulate 25 Self Help Groups in Bachhoda and Mau villages and provided farmers with agricultural inputs as part of her work.

In January 2021, she enrolled herself for a training program intended to develop, ‘Haqdarshikas’ or women field support agents. This program was launched by SRIJAN in collaboration with Haqdarshak to develop a cadre of community-based field support agents, who enable government scheme access at the last mile.

These women link community members to government schemes, by passing on knowledge regarding relevant schemes, and facilitate them in the submission of forms. In exchange of the services provided, they charge a small service fee from the community.

Shubha was trained along with 39 other women selected from across SRIJAN’s work areas in Tikamgarh district through a 4-day training provided by Haqdarshak. The women were introduced to the Haqdarshak app, which is an android-based mobile application with information about welfare schemes, eligibility criteria and process of applying to the mentioned schemes.

The trained Haqdarshika has a one-tap access to all the information she needs to perform the job alloted. The user friendly interface in regional language allows ease of access to Haqdarshikas from anywhere.

Once trained, Haqdarshikas pass on knowledge regarding relevant schemes to women through the medium of monthly Self Help Group (SHG) meetings and to the general community at large through door to door visits. To close the loop, each trained Haqdarshika is linked to a computer centre.

Haqdarshikas facilitate the community members in filling the forms and collect the required identity proofs and other documents from the community. She visits the computer centre with a bulk of the forms for photocopying and online form submission on various portals. The offline forms are submitted at the Panchayat office, where she regularly follows up with the secretary to know the status of the application.

Post the training, Shubha started her work as Haqdarshika for Bachhoda and Mau villages. She attended monthly SHG meetings of 25 self help groups and informed women about welfare schemes such as Ayushman Bharat, PM Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. She also helped process basic entitlements, such as old age and widow pension, and provided knowledge on getting Pan card. Linking BPL families to ration cards by activation of delinked or old ration cards was also undertaken by her.

Apart from her daily rounds, wherein she collected applications and documents from community members, she was also contacted at her residence for information on schemes. Within a period of less than six months, the community members have started looking upon her as a sort of repository on government welfare schemes, a fact she proudly shares.

By April 2021, Shubha had helped 500 community members to get Ayushman Bharat cards, which provide health cover of Rs.5 lakhs per family per year, allowing poor people to access quality health care and meet hospitalization expenses with ease.

‘A woman in Bachhoda had met with an accident, that had badly injured both her legs, she underwent surgery and the hospital expenses incurred were in excess to Rs. 2,00,000. Due to Ayushman card, she was able to get the best treatment and not worry about the expenses.’ - Shubha Ghose

Shubha shares this incident with pride as she had processed the application for Ayushman bharat card in the above case.

Apart from this, she has helped 20 community members get a PAN card and 15 mothers have registered under Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. Her earnings for the first three months were Rs. 7500. However, post this, the second wave of COVID-19 led to a drop in work as the stringent lockdowns made movement difficult. Shubha mentions that, as things are slowly returning to normal, she has started processing applications again.

As of March 23, 2021, the total Haqdarshikas operational in different villages of Bundelkhand are 48, who have processed 4800 applications under various government schemes, out of which 1849 beneficiaries have received benefits to the tune of Rs. 1.59 crores.

Post completion of her MA in Sociology, Shubha wants to work for SRIJAN or some other grassroots organization, professionally. When asked the reason for her career choice, she shares smilingly; ‘paisa thodi sab kuch hai, logo ki madad bhi zaruri hai’. ‘It is not about money, it is also important to help people’. SRIJAN needs more local champions like Shubhi for sustained impact of their interventions.

In January 2021, she enrolled herself for a training program intended to develop, ‘Haqdarshikas’ or women field support agents. This program was launched by SRIJAN in collaboration with Haqdarshak

By April 2021, Shubha had helped 500 community members to get Ayushman Bharat cards, which provide health cover of Rs.5 lakhs per family per year, allowing poor people to access quality health care and meet hospitalization expenses with ease.