In an effort to mobilise the party at the grassroot level, the Congress has decided to launch a nationwide outreach campaign to connect with frontline health workers as also those severely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and gather primary data about COVID-affected families, patients and the deceased.
As part of the campaign, the state units of the party will set up control rooms at the offices of the Pradesh Congress Committees. PCCs and party units at the district and city levels will appoint a minimum of one point person as a coordinator per block or corporation or ward to monitor activities in the duration of the campaign, said K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of organisation, in a statement.
The block or town area presidents will further identify 10 workers per block who were active in helping people during the pandemic and ten workers per town area and designate them as ‘COVID Warriors'. These chosen workers will collect data from the ground and relay it upwards through the state level units to the AICC control room and data department. In all, the plan is to cover 7,199 blocks and 7,935 towns in 736 districts.
An information campaign on COVID-19 through leaflets and SMS services will also be run for 30 days to create awareness among people.
MPs, MLAs, MLCs and former legislators, in coordination with the AICC social media team, will hold virtual meetings in their constituencies to educate, motivate and explain the task to the COVID warriors.
Each COVID warrior is expected to visit a minimum of 10-15 households per day, covering not less than 200 households in 30 days. They will carry a questionnaire with questions such as 'was anyone from your family infected by COVID-19'; 'has any family member died due to COVID-19'; their name and age; 'was he/she the breadwinner of the family'; 'has anyone in your family lost his/her job due to COVID-19 lockdown'; 'any support that they may be needing (ration, job, education, financial support) etc'.
The teams visiting the families will facilitate delivery of government-approved medicine kits, masks and sanitisers. They will help in delivery of ration or food to extremely vulnerable families, assist in vaccination registration and will coordinate with ambulance service provided by the party.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and PCC chiefs will be writing condolence letters to the next of kin of those who passed away in the pandemic.
The outreach programme aims to cover around three crore households in 30 days thereby indirectly touching approximately 12 crore people at an average of four members per family.
