Collector excels in Beti Bachao

Hyderabad Collector Dr Yogita Rana is all set to receive an award from Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 8, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, at Jhunjhuna,  Rajasthan. She is being awarded for ‘Exemplary Performance’ towards protection, welfare and education of girl child under the ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Programme’ (BBBP). Hyderabad is one among the 10 districts in the country to successfully implement BBBP.

“It’s a concerted effort and the credit goes to all those working in the district,” the doctor-turned-bureaucrat shared.
An alumnus of prestigious Government Medical College in Jammu, Dr Yogita could have had a lucrative medical career. However, she quit her profession as a doctor after witnessing appalling conditions prevailing in State-run health centres during her MBBS internship.

With her brother Danish Rana already an IPS officer and with loads of support from her mother, she thought of becoming an IAS officer believing that it is the only position that plays a catalytic role in transforming society, which is ridden with a multitude of issues. 

Her initial journey as an IAS while working in tribal areas – Rampa Chodavaram and Bhadrachalam - gave her real experience of life. Understandably, being a doctor she focused on primary health centres and extending medical camps for women. She believed that competency of State-run hospitals alone can reduce the economic burden of poor and downtrodden.

The exceptional success of eNAM platform implementation in Nizamabad after she took over the reins of that district earned her a name at the national level. The success of eNAM brought her Prime Minister’s Award for Excellence in Public Administration in 2017.

  The Telangana Excellence (TEX) award she received in general category for the project ‘Manavatha Sadan - Rehabilitation of HIV Infected Children’, in individual capacity last year reflects her human angle. Implementation of playful learning in 240 Anganwadi centres in Hyderabad district has yielded fruits. This apart, the child sex ratio for Hyderabad increased to a promising figure of 951 girls per 1,000 boys for 2017-18.  

“In any family, women are the first ones to wake up and last to go to bed. It needs to be changed. All the workload and responsibilities should be shared equally in a family,” Yogita, mother of two kids, said.