BITAN Joins Government of West Bengal's Duare Sarkar Initiative

BITAN has been officially empanelled as a civil society partner under the Government of West Bengal's flagship 'Duare Sarkar' (Government at Your Doorstep) initiative, effective July 2025. Under the partnership, BITAN's community facilitators will support residents at over 40 Duare Sarkar camps in South 24 Parganas and Howrah districts, helping them navigate applications for welfare schemes including Lakshmir Bhandar, Kanyashree, Swasthya Sathi, Krishak Bandhu, and the Old Age Pension.

Duare Sarkar camps, which bring government services directly to panchayat and ward-level venues, have significantly expanded welfare coverage across West Bengal since the programme's launch in 2020. However, BITAN's field experience consistently showed that the most marginalised households — particularly those with low literacy, disabilities, or without identity documents — faced barriers to accessing the camps and completing applications. BITAN's empanelment addresses this gap by placing trained facilitators at each camp.

"We see this as a natural extension of what our community teams already do," said BITAN's Deputy Director. "Our people are already in these villages every week. They know which households haven't yet enrolled in Swasthya Sathi, which elderly woman hasn't received her pension. Now we have an official role to act on that knowledge."

In the pilot phase covering July–September 2025, BITAN facilitators supported 2,840 individuals at camp locations — of whom 1,670 were first-time welfare enrolees. The most common schemes facilitated were Lakshmir Bhandar (supported 980 households) and Swasthya Sathi health insurance (610 enrolments). Sixty-two persons with disabilities were linked to disability certificates and associated benefits for the first time.

The partnership model is being documented by the State Urban Development Agency (SUDA) as a potential template for engaging civil society organisations in Duare Sarkar camp facilitation across other districts. BITAN has offered to share its facilitator training curriculum and monitoring tools with any organisation seeking to replicate the approach.