Government welfare schemes only reach the families they are meant for if those families know that the schemes exist, who is eligible and what assistance is payable. One of the plainest ways of putting that information in front of people is to paint it on the walls of the offices they already visit. Between 2021 and 2023 the District Social Welfare Officer, Kushinagar, engaged Smt. Ramavati Devi Jan Seva Sansthan for exactly this kind of information, education and communication work.
The 2021 work order
Following a public notice inviting quotations, the District Social Welfare Officer’s letter of 15 March 2021 accepted the Sansthan’s rate as the lowest received and ordered wall paintings publicising the financial assistance scheme for victims of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Boards of 8 × 7 square feet were to be painted at the district’s 14 development block offices, its 6 tehsils, the Vikas Bhavan and the Collectorate, and the work was to be completed within a week of the order.
What the boards say
Each board reproduces the schedule of assistance under the scheme in Hindi: the categories of case, from ordinary cases to the most serious, and the amounts payable at each stage. It names the district officers under whose authority the scheme runs and carries the line “Sahyogi Sanstha – Smt. Ramavati Devi Jan Seva Sansthan, Kushinagar”, identifying the Sansthan as the supporting organisation that executed the work. Two of these painted boards are shown in the photographs accompanying this article.
Extension in 2023
On 9 January 2023 the office issued a further order for the same scheme’s publicity, this time covering all tehsils and development blocks of the district together with the Collectorate, the Vikas Bhavan, the office of the Superintendent of Police and the district hospital. On 21 August 2023 the District Social Welfare Officer ordered a new set of boards publicising old-age homes and the welfare of parents and senior citizens under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Rules, 2014, at the tehsils, blocks, district headquarters and district hospital, to be executed once the budget was received.
Why it matters
Wall-painted notices are inexpensive, durable and readable by anyone who passes an office, including people without smartphones or internet access. For a scheme that provides assistance to victims of atrocities, and for provisions that protect elderly parents, a clearly painted board at the block office or the police superintendent’s office can be the first place a family learns that help is available and how to apply.
The Sansthan’s part in this work is documented by the three work orders and by the painted boards themselves; this article does not attach figures for the number of people reached, as none are recorded.
