3.5 The great next step

3.5.1. Monitoring/Reporting by DTCs

Based on the principles of NTP and in line with the “job-oriented” training given at the NTI, seven manuals were prescribed to programme workers. The first five were meant to guide the DTC key staff. The sixth manual was for the staff of PHIs. The seventh was the BCG manual. These manuals were to facilitate the execution of activities. These were therefore to be referred too frequently. The DTO, being the team leader, had to be fully conversant with all manuals. The DTO, TO and LT should be conversant with the PHI manual, in addition to their own manuals in order to guide and supervise others. Familiarity with SA manual would be an advantage to every member of the DTC team. The work completed should be reported regularly in the prescribed periodic returns. Extreme caution should be exercised not to deviate from the manual. These should be registered as every form and procedure introduced in the working of NTP had origins in methodical operations research. Each would contain certain vital data which could be used for a variety of scrutiny and analyses. Initially, the NTP was not target oriented. Its working and functions embodied evolutionary seeds wherein both the structure and programme grew steadily under an ongoing evaluation process. The reporting system of DTCs facilitated measurement of achievements or work done and gave the necessary inputs for expectations. These could be used to critically review operational and technical performance. Hence, a technically trained SA assisted the DTO. He was not a mere clerk who could compute monthly data and file periodic returns. In a certain sense, the SA at the DTC would be the evaluator of its functioning. She/he would receive reports of activity from all the PHIs of the district, consolidate them. She/he would assist the DTO in assessment and constructive analysis before filing periodic reports to the state and the NTI. The reports are analysed at the NTI which are then sent with comments to the DGHS, New Delhi, state authorities, individual DTCs, for corrective actions to be taken.