Duare Sarkar (DS) meaning ‘Government at Doorstep’, an administrative portal launched by the Government of West Bengal, uses machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics to provide various public service benefits to the citizens of Bengal.
Launched on December 1, 2020 by the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the DS portal offers the citizens an opportunity to get enrolled in a bouquet of twelve identified schemes such as Khadya Sathi, Swasthya Sathi, Caste Certificates, Sikshashree, Jai Johar, Taposili Bandhu, Kanyashree, Rupashree, Aikyashree, Manabik, MGNREGA and Krishak Bandhu, having strong linkages with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The portal is able to capture how populations in different regions are responding to this campaign and through the MIS system, allows tweaking of the system for making additional effort in reaching out to the populations which are not responding as much as those in other areas.
Commenting on the predictive analytics, Choten Lama, IAS, Secretary to the Government of West Bengal and State Nodal Officer, Duare Sarkar said, “The Duare Sarkar portal has been designed to capture demands of different services through camps. With bulk delivery of services in a time bound manner, it makes the service delivery system more responsive, accessible and responsible to the citizens. AI driven trend and future prediction has been implemented for better queue management during peak hours. The predictive analytics has helped to forecast attendance during different hours of a day at registration counters using the historical data obtained from previously held camps. It enabled the administration in planning deployment of additional resources to minimise the discomfort to the citizens in the camps. The analysis has also led to the identification of the peak hours/camps where decongestion is required.”
DS portal has been integrated with a wide array of modern ICT technologies – the Web, SMS gateway for auto-notifications and AI driven future predictions on mobile apps for geo-tagging of camp venues, integration with departmental portals through web APIs for service delivery status. A huge database has been created during registration of the citizens, generating evidence and ideas for improved planning.
According to Lama, the outreach camps are held in villages, so that the hitherto uncovered populations are given the opportunity to access government schemes meant for them, at a place they are familiar with and without having to spend money to get to the government offices.
“By designing the camps in such a manner that all departments converge together, citizen are made aware of their entitlements (like food security, social justice/rights, health) and services (like social security pension, incentives for education, land mutation, income guarantee/incentives to farmers) which are citizen focused and aimed to improve their quality of life. Further, the strategy of Duare Sarkar is to converge efforts of different departments delivering services to the people, thereby overcoming the existing barriers that limit citizens’ access to government services and their entitlements. It is the citizens at the grassroots that are at the very core of Duare Sarkar,” expressed Lama, on the reach of the initiative.