At the Manikkal panchayat office at Pirappancode, a small crowd waits outside a building. Inside, women manning three tables have little time to catch their breath. The queue is long though it is nearing lunchtime, and tokens have been issued to maintain some semblance of order. The women belong to a Kudumbasree unit of five members who operate a help desk at the panchayat office. Nearly a 100 people approach the help desk every day, though the number may go up when specific projects get under way, such as the Jalanidhi rural drinking water project.
“We start at 9.30 a.m. and close for the day at 5 p.m.,” says Neelima, an accountant at the community development society (CDS) who chips in when the number of people lining up for various services increases.
Services on offer
The help desk provides forms for various projects of the panchayat, those to be submitted to the village extension office, photocopies of various documents for a fee, stamp paper, revenue stamps, and helps people fill up applications, be it for banks or loan applications by other Kudumbasree units for starting microenterprises.
The help desk by the Kudumbasree unit, in fact, is the result of such a loan from a bank, says Neelima.
Nearly 100 people approach the help desk run by a five-member team at Manikkal panchayat.
