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[[File:Sampath Kumar picture.jpg|thumb|Sampath Kumar, Indian Civil Servant]] |
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#REDIRECT [[Sampath Raj]] |
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Sampath Kumar (born on 20 May 1970) is an Indian Civil Servant and currently the Principal Secretary and Development Commissioner with the State Government of Meghalaya in India. He is also the Resident Commissioner<ref>{{Cite web |title=IAS {{!}} Meghalaya Government Portal |url=https://meghalaya.gov.in/ias |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=meghalaya.gov.in}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Notifications {{!}} Meghalaya Government Portal |url=https://meghalaya.gov.in/notifications/content/26903 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=meghalaya.gov.in}}</ref> to Meghalaya State in New Delhi. He has over 25 years of experience- 19 years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 7 years in the non-profit sector across India. |
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He has designed and implemented innovative and scalable policy solutions for poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, rural development and participatory governance. He pioneered the Meghalaya Early Childhood Development Mission<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-12-23 |title=Meghalaya govt conceptualises early childhood development programme |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/education/meghalaya-govt-conceptualises-early-childhood-development-programme-7686490/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}</ref> (MECDM), a 1st of its kind in India. Further, Meghalaya’s 1st ever State Health Policy<ref>{{Cite news |last=Singh |first=Bikash |date=2021-03-05 |title=Meghalaya Cabinet approves state health policy |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/meghalaya-cabinet-approves-state-health-policy/articleshow/81354002.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2023-08-22 |issn=0013-0389}}</ref><ref name=":0" group="Govt. Records">PDF File </ref> was formulated and launched during his charge as the State’s Health & Family Welfare Principal Secretary. Under his charge of the Community & Rural Development Sector, a policy of 50% reservation of women<ref>{{Cite news |last=Singh |first=Bikash |date=2020-08-08 |title=Meghalaya approves policy on seat reservation for women in village employment councils |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/meghalaya-approves-policy-on-seat-reservation-for-women-in-village-employment-councils/articleshow/77423232.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2023-08-22 |issn=0013-0389}}</ref> as chairman and secretaries in Meghalaya’s VECs was implemented for the 1st time in the country. |
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== '''Early Life''' == |
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Kumar is the fourth of the five children, out of whom the second child passed away during childbirth at home. Kumar was the only child in the family who was born at a health facility in Yanam<ref>{{Citation |title=Yanam |date=2023-08-20 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yanam&oldid=1171326916 |work=Wikipedia |access-date=2023-08-22 |language=en}}</ref>, which is situated on the East Coast, in the district of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh state in India. He later went on to champion the cause of good health of mothers and children, especially in terms of ensuring institutional delivery of high risk pregnant women in Meghalaya, during his tenure as the Health Secretary of the State. |
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His father passed away while he was 16 years old and his mother single handedly raised all his siblings. His mother has been a source of great inspiration for Kumar, and her zeal and zest for life is something that Kumar tries to imbibe in his life. |
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== '''Education''' == |
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Sampath was considered a brilliant child, by dint of the fact that at the age of nine, he was able to crack a state level examination for Rural Bright Children. Clearing this examination provided him with a scholarship that facilitated high quality boarding education in highly regarded Andhra Pradesh Residential Educational Institutions (APRSE)<ref>{{Cite web |title=APRSE |url=https://aprs.apcfss.in/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=aprs.apcfss.in}}</ref>. He studied in Andhra Pradesh Residential School in Dandakaranya region of the State. Despite being the youngest student in the class, he went on to emerge as a topper until the tenth standard. He attributes his experiences and interactions at the residential school as crucial factors that drove him towards the path of public service and contributed to his disciplined lifestyle. To this day, Kumar values the power of collaboration, especially with a diverse people, thanks to his experiences and learnings at the AP Residential School. |
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Immediately after his tenth boards, he moved to Hyderabad at the Government Institute of Electronics to receive a special diploma. Thereafter, he went on to pursue an Engineering degree from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT)<ref>{{Cite web |last=Admin |title=Home |url=https://www.cbit.ac.in/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=CBIT}}</ref>, Telangana, Osmania University<ref>{{Cite web |title=Osmania University |url=https://www.osmania.ac.in/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=www.osmania.ac.in}}</ref>, India. |
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Kumar aspired to serve the people as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)<ref>{{Citation |title=Indian Administrative Service |date=2023-08-16 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Indian_Administrative_Service&oldid=1170642613 |work=Wikipedia |access-date=2023-08-22 |language=en}}</ref> since his childhood. In 1995, he went on to clear the UPSC<ref>{{Citation |title=Union Public Service Commission |date=2023-08-19 |url=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Union_Public_Service_Commission&oldid=1171139789 |work=Wikipedia |access-date=2023-08-22 |language=en}}</ref> Civil Service Examinations securing an All India rank of 5th position. This made him the third person in the history of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (AP) State in India to secure the rank. He attributed his ability to crack one of the toughest competitive examinations to the support of his family, especially his mother, and his close peers. |
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== '''Career''' == |
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While Kumar was preparing for his Civil Services, in the year 1995, in his first attempt, he qualified for the Indian Railway Traffic Services (IRTS)<ref>{{Cite web |title=IRTS Welcomes You |url=http://www.irts.org.in/view_section1.jsp?lang=0&id=0,1 |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=www.irts.org.in}}</ref>. Since he aspired to join the services in a position where he desired to work for the empowerment of marginalized communities, especially the poor, he did not join the IRTS. In the same year, he got through the Andhra Pradesh Civil Service Examinations where he joined the service as the District Tribal Welfare (DTW) Officer in AP. Between 1995-1997, he worked in two districts namely Rangareddy and Seethampeta districts of erstwhile AP. |
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'''In the year 1997''', he cracked the UPSC- All India Civil Service Examinations with an all India rank of 5. He chose the Assam-Meghalaya Cadre due to his vision to work for the empowerment of the marginalized and indigenous communities in tribal regions of India. |
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'''In 2002''', he took charge as the Joint Collector of Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh. During the same period, he was also a Project Director for Andhra Pradesh Poverty Reduction Project at Nellore district. Here he introduced a ‘Personalized Bar-coded Food Coupon System’ to streamline the Public Distribution System of food grains in the District, a first of its kind initiative in the country to ensure total transparency and accountability. This improved the food security of over 70,000 poor families. |
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'''In 2005''', Kumar took charge as Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate of West Garo Hills District, in the Northeast Indian State of India. During this time, he conceptualized and set up the grassroots institutions called Village Employment Councils (VEC) as village level planning and implementing agencies. This model was implemented across the state eventually. |
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He developed a decentralized model for combating high numbers of Malarial deaths through training grassroots workers to test and treat the disease. This model gained popularity as the ‘Tura Model’, whereby, the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) were for the 1st time, empowered to identify and provide basic treatment for Malaria. The model was soon adopted across the state saving a few thousand lives in the last 10 years. |
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'''Between 2007 to 2014,''' Kumar took a sabbatical from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and worked for an NGO called the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. During this time, he took on the role of Project Director and CEO of the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) in Uttar Pradesh. He led the largest gender-focused poverty alleviation and community-mobilization. This impacted about 1.9 million rural women in the state of Uttar Pradesh. |
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During this time, he also conceptualized and experimented the Total Financial Inclusion (TFI) method for poverty reduction. This concept was also highlighted in the 2008 Union Budget and is implemented across India today. |
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'''Since 2014,''' Sampath Kumar has been associated with the State Government of Meghalaya as Principal Secretary, in charge of Health & Family Welfare, Rural Development and Agriculture, Veterinary & Animal Husbandry Department, Water Resources, Social Welfare, Program Implementation & Evaluation departments and Chief of Staff to the Executive head of the State (Chief Minister). |
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During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kumar took charge as the Principal Secretary of the Health & Family Welfare Department in Meghalaya. During this time, he was instrumental in effective management of pandemic situations by adopting a 3-pronged preemptive strategy involving effective use of data, systems and community. Meghalaya’s efforts garnered National attention when the state set forth a behavioural change management strategy to mitigate the effects of COVID-19. |
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Further, under his charge of the health department, Meghalaya got its first ever Three Dimensional Positive Health Policy<ref name=":0" group="Govt. Records" />. Following this, he brought about innovative reforms to bridge the service delivery gap in the health sector. He received appreciation from MMSA<ref>Govt. Records</ref> for addressing shortage of medical specialists in the State by recruiting 400 new doctors. Played a key role in signing an MoU<ref>{{Cite news |last=Singh |first=Bikash |date=2022-09-19 |title=Meghalaya signs MoU with Tamil Nadu for recruitment, training of medical professionals |work=The Economic Times |url=https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/healthcare/meghalaya-signs-mou-with-tamil-nadu-for-recruitment-training-of-medical-professionals/articleshow/94308556.cms?from=mdr |access-date=2023-08-22 |issn=0013-0389}}</ref> with the state Government of Tamil Nadu to support Meghalaya for recruitment and training of medical professionals. |
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In Meghalaya, he has been instrumental in improving MGNREGA implementation by reengineering the delivery systems and empowering grassroots institutions- the program expenditure increased by over 300 percent (from 40.2 to 170 million USD) in just four years. He played an instrumental role in enacting the first and only (till date) social audit legislation<ref>{{Cite news |date=2018-05-21 |title=The Meghalaya example |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-meghalaya-example/article23953492.ece |access-date=2023-08-22 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref> in the country- the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act of 2017 that provides for community-based auditing of all social programs and government services. He was also instrumental in enacting Meghalaya Farmers’ (Empowerment) Commission Act, 2019 to bring reforms in the agriculture sector. Meghalaya became the first State in India to bring an integrated water policy<ref>{{Cite web |last=Patel |first=Tanvi |date=2019-07-27 |title=Meghalaya First State to Implement Water Policy: IAS Officer Explains What It Means |url=https://www.thebetterindia.com/189923/ias-hero-meghalaya-first-state-water-conservation-policy-india/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=The Better India |language=en-US}}</ref> aimed at mobilizing the people and the Government agencies for ensuring water security for present and future generations. He propagated the idea and implementation of field level leadership<ref>{{Citation |title=Mr. Sampath Kumar IAS, CEO, MBDA explains the concept of Field Level Leadership (FLL) in Meghalaya |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCLK6dwnERc |access-date=2023-08-22 |language=en}}</ref> as a tool to create leaders at the grassroots across Meghalaya, thereby ushering a silent revolution for effective Natural Resource Management at the community level<ref>{{Citation |title=Let's talk NRM- Episode 1 with SHRI SAMPATH KUMAR, IAS |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7FKOzrwZEw |access-date=2023-08-22 |language=en}}</ref>. |
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He also conceptualised the Early Childhood Development for the State of Meghalaya, making the State one of the 1<sup>st</sup> in India to implement a mission of this caliber. (For this, Union Minister of Women & Child Development, Smriti Irani singled him out for praise for this initiative). |
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Owing to his exceptional contribution in improving the human developmental indicators, Kumar was appointed Development Commissioner to the State of Meghalaya in 2021. Kumar is a member of the Lancet Covid-19 India Taskforce<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sampath Kumar |url=https://covid19commission.org/sampath-kumar |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Lancet Commission on COVID-19 |language=en-US}}</ref> and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley for Smart Village Movement. |
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In 2018, Kumar opted for a Voluntary Retirement from Service. However, his application for VRS was declined, owing to his excellent track record in the State, and for the purpose of retaining him for the State’s development endeavours. The chief minister Conrad K Sangma had interacted with him about various issues concerning Meghalaya and the shortage of officers in the state and urged upon him to continue his services to contribute to the development of the state. |
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== '''The MBOSE agitation'''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2005-11-03 |title=A conflict in Meghalaya |url=https://frontline.thehindu.com/other/article30207007.ece |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Frontline |language=en}}</ref> '''of 2005 in Meghalaya: A turning point in Kumar’s career''' == |
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As an IAS officer belonging to the Assam-Meghalaya Cadre, Kumar returned back from Andhra Pradesh to his parent cadre in Meghalaya in 2005 in order to obtain a No Objection Certificate from Meghalaya to be able to serve in the State of Assam. However, on September 30, 2005, the day that Kumar was scheduled to leave for Assam, a firing incident took place in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills District in Tura, where about 9 student protestors were killed in a police firing. This went on to be known as the infamous ‘MBOSE firing incident’ in the history of Meghalaya. |
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At the time, Meghalaya was caught in a political crisis over the issue of restructuring the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE). The issue snowballed into a larger conflict between the Khasi and Garo tribes. The conflict took an ugly turn on September 30 when nine protesters were killed when the police opened fire on two Garo Students' Union (GSU) rallies in the headquarter towns of Tura and Williamnagar in the Garo Hills. |
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Following the incident, Kumar returned back to meet the then Chief Secretary of Meghalaya WMS Pariat, wherein he requested him to allow Kumar to handle the ongoing unrest in the Garo Hills Region and initiate the peace building exercise, while finding out the actual cause of discontent among the people. Following the request, Kumar was assigned charge as the Deputy Commissioner of Tura in West Garo Hills District of Meghalaya. |
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=== '''Peace Building & faith restoration following MBOSE Agitation in Tura''' === |
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Kumar took upon himself to conduct a massive peace-building exercise in the region, and to find the root cause for people’s discontent. He went to DownTown Hospital in Guwahati to meet the people injured due to police firing during the MBOSE-Tura Agitation incident. |
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To get to the source of the problem Kumar went incognito and disguised himself as a member of an NGO. He stayed with the people in the villages of Meghalaya’s Garo Hills region for about a week and tried to learn the reasons that evoked sentiments, in the form of agitations from the people with respect to the MBOSE case. |
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He realized that one of the greatest issues was lack of public communication towards the MBOSE issue. People in Garo Hills were under the impression that the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) with its headquarters in Garo Hills, was being shifted to Shillong, located in the Khasi Hills region. And following this, they believed that students based in Garo Hills region could no longer attend examinations in the Khasi Hills Region. They perceived the act of strengthening the Shillong-MBOSE office, to deal with the problem of leakage and shortage of question papers, as moving the MBOSE headquarters from Tura to Shillong. And this implied that the Garo Hills region was being deprived of development, and this was in disagreement with the Hill State People’s Movement recommendations, which laid down that both the Garo and the Khasi Hills Region would develop at a uniform pace. |
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Further, the people had already been reeling under the feeling that the Garo Hills Region was lagging behind in terms of development as compared to its counterpart, the Khasi Hills region. Kumar also observed that even in terms of health & education, the region was lagging behind at the time. Further, it was also observed that most of the Civil Servants were either non-Garos, or from the Khasi Hills Region. There was hardly any representation from the Garo Hills Region. This contributed to the feeling of neglect among the people of the region. |
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Although efforts were in place from the Centre to accelerate developmental activities in the region, especially through the RSVY funds that were sanctioned by the Central Government to only the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya, people were not made aware of the same, hence contributing to the feeling of neglect. Kumar observed that there was a clear disconnect between the people and the administration. |
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During the course of his incognito village visits and community interactions, people confessed to the existence of several leakages within the erstwhile Indira Awaas Yojana, the housing scheme of the central government, which is currently operational as the PMAY Scheme. It was found that the beneficiaries were receiving only One Third of the total cost allotted under the scheme, while two thirds were diverted to either the block office or the block committee members nominated by the respective MLAs. This was a striking revelation. |
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=== '''The Solution''' === |
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Kumar took the initiative to conduct a Social Audit of the housing scheme. Here, the records of the beneficiaries, the amount allotted, number of houses completed and the cost incurred, as per the government records since the last three years of the housing programme was made public. The same was shared with all the Nokmas (the local headmen in Meghalaya’s Garo Hills Region) of the respective villages. The Nokmas were asked to call for a meeting and read out the names, as per the records. |
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This practice garnered huge attention from all over the district. Several anomalies were brought to light through this Social Audit. The then Member of Parliament from the region, Mr. Purno Agitok Sangma, who had resigned during the MBOSE agitation, also took due note of this activity and highlighted the same across the media. |
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Kumar communicated to the people that although the Government had an intent to reach the last mile of the population, the same was suffering due to leakages contributing to faulty implementation of the schemes. Following this, Kumar proposed the establishment of Village Development Councils. However, instead of this, the Centre proposed the setting up of an alternative institution called the Village Employment Councils (VECs) under MGNREGA, for the 1st time in Meghalaya in the Garo Hills District. This was the first time that a village level institution came into being in Meghalaya, with an attempt to improve public communication and empower grassroot communities. |
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== '''Publications''' == |
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Kumar has co-authored the book-The Road from Sick Care to Healthcare<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Road from Sickcare to Healthcare: How to add 80 bil… |url=https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/132679939-the-road-from-sickcare-to-healthcare |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=Goodreads |language=en}}</ref>: How to add 80 billion productive years to our current generation which was published in early 2023. He has also written a chapter for ‘The Public Productivity and Performance Handbook’<ref>{{Cite book |last=Holzer |first=Marc |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=01QwEAAAQBAJ&pg=PR19&lpg=PR19&dq=sampath+kumar+ias+meghalaya&source=bl&ots=VUiR75CSTb&sig=ACfU3U30r5amD76ixAw8UEzisQZDDxdwmQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi6lu7nxe-AAxWSRmwGHV8jCpA4MhDoAXoECB8QAw#v=onepage&q=sampath%20kumar%20ias%20meghalaya&f=false |title=The Public Productivity and Performance Handbook |last2=Ballard |first2=Andrew |date=2021-07-25 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-40219-3 |language=en}}</ref> called ‘Applying Competencies: State Capability Enhancement Project’. |
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He also regularly contributes articles at the World Economic Forum<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-06 |title=How Meghalaya state's integrated approach is leading the way to universal health coverage in India |url=https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/03/integrated-approach-meghalaya-universal-health-coverage-india/ |access-date=2023-08-22 |website=World Economic Forum |language=en}}</ref>, Times of India<ref>{{Cite news |last=Phira |first=Sampath Kumar and Y. |title=Increasing voluntary blood donation: Key for several health and development goals |work=The Times of India |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/voices/increasing-voluntary-blood-donation-key-for-several-health-and-development-goals/?source=app&frmapp=yes |access-date=2023-08-22 |issn=0971-8257}}</ref>, among others. Besides, he has co authored and commissioned several research papers and studies revolving around the themes of poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, rural development and participatory governance. |
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<references /> |
Revision as of 11:11, 23 August 2023
Sampath Kumar (born on 20 May 1970) is an Indian Civil Servant and currently the Principal Secretary and Development Commissioner with the State Government of Meghalaya in India. He is also the Resident Commissioner[1][2] to Meghalaya State in New Delhi. He has over 25 years of experience- 19 years in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and 7 years in the non-profit sector across India.
He has designed and implemented innovative and scalable policy solutions for poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, rural development and participatory governance. He pioneered the Meghalaya Early Childhood Development Mission[3] (MECDM), a 1st of its kind in India. Further, Meghalaya’s 1st ever State Health Policy[4][Govt. Records 1] was formulated and launched during his charge as the State’s Health & Family Welfare Principal Secretary. Under his charge of the Community & Rural Development Sector, a policy of 50% reservation of women[5] as chairman and secretaries in Meghalaya’s VECs was implemented for the 1st time in the country.
Early Life
Kumar is the fourth of the five children, out of whom the second child passed away during childbirth at home. Kumar was the only child in the family who was born at a health facility in Yanam[6], which is situated on the East Coast, in the district of East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh state in India. He later went on to champion the cause of good health of mothers and children, especially in terms of ensuring institutional delivery of high risk pregnant women in Meghalaya, during his tenure as the Health Secretary of the State.
His father passed away while he was 16 years old and his mother single handedly raised all his siblings. His mother has been a source of great inspiration for Kumar, and her zeal and zest for life is something that Kumar tries to imbibe in his life.
Education
Sampath was considered a brilliant child, by dint of the fact that at the age of nine, he was able to crack a state level examination for Rural Bright Children. Clearing this examination provided him with a scholarship that facilitated high quality boarding education in highly regarded Andhra Pradesh Residential Educational Institutions (APRSE)[7]. He studied in Andhra Pradesh Residential School in Dandakaranya region of the State. Despite being the youngest student in the class, he went on to emerge as a topper until the tenth standard. He attributes his experiences and interactions at the residential school as crucial factors that drove him towards the path of public service and contributed to his disciplined lifestyle. To this day, Kumar values the power of collaboration, especially with a diverse people, thanks to his experiences and learnings at the AP Residential School.
Immediately after his tenth boards, he moved to Hyderabad at the Government Institute of Electronics to receive a special diploma. Thereafter, he went on to pursue an Engineering degree from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT)[8], Telangana, Osmania University[9], India.
Kumar aspired to serve the people as a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS)[10] since his childhood. In 1995, he went on to clear the UPSC[11] Civil Service Examinations securing an All India rank of 5th position. This made him the third person in the history of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh (AP) State in India to secure the rank. He attributed his ability to crack one of the toughest competitive examinations to the support of his family, especially his mother, and his close peers.
Career
While Kumar was preparing for his Civil Services, in the year 1995, in his first attempt, he qualified for the Indian Railway Traffic Services (IRTS)[12]. Since he aspired to join the services in a position where he desired to work for the empowerment of marginalized communities, especially the poor, he did not join the IRTS. In the same year, he got through the Andhra Pradesh Civil Service Examinations where he joined the service as the District Tribal Welfare (DTW) Officer in AP. Between 1995-1997, he worked in two districts namely Rangareddy and Seethampeta districts of erstwhile AP.
In the year 1997, he cracked the UPSC- All India Civil Service Examinations with an all India rank of 5. He chose the Assam-Meghalaya Cadre due to his vision to work for the empowerment of the marginalized and indigenous communities in tribal regions of India.
In 2002, he took charge as the Joint Collector of Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh. During the same period, he was also a Project Director for Andhra Pradesh Poverty Reduction Project at Nellore district. Here he introduced a ‘Personalized Bar-coded Food Coupon System’ to streamline the Public Distribution System of food grains in the District, a first of its kind initiative in the country to ensure total transparency and accountability. This improved the food security of over 70,000 poor families.
In 2005, Kumar took charge as Deputy Commissioner & District Magistrate of West Garo Hills District, in the Northeast Indian State of India. During this time, he conceptualized and set up the grassroots institutions called Village Employment Councils (VEC) as village level planning and implementing agencies. This model was implemented across the state eventually.
He developed a decentralized model for combating high numbers of Malarial deaths through training grassroots workers to test and treat the disease. This model gained popularity as the ‘Tura Model’, whereby, the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) were for the 1st time, empowered to identify and provide basic treatment for Malaria. The model was soon adopted across the state saving a few thousand lives in the last 10 years.
Between 2007 to 2014, Kumar took a sabbatical from the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and worked for an NGO called the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation. During this time, he took on the role of Project Director and CEO of the Rajiv Gandhi Mahila Vikas Pariyojana (RGMVP) in Uttar Pradesh. He led the largest gender-focused poverty alleviation and community-mobilization. This impacted about 1.9 million rural women in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
During this time, he also conceptualized and experimented the Total Financial Inclusion (TFI) method for poverty reduction. This concept was also highlighted in the 2008 Union Budget and is implemented across India today.
Since 2014, Sampath Kumar has been associated with the State Government of Meghalaya as Principal Secretary, in charge of Health & Family Welfare, Rural Development and Agriculture, Veterinary & Animal Husbandry Department, Water Resources, Social Welfare, Program Implementation & Evaluation departments and Chief of Staff to the Executive head of the State (Chief Minister).
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Kumar took charge as the Principal Secretary of the Health & Family Welfare Department in Meghalaya. During this time, he was instrumental in effective management of pandemic situations by adopting a 3-pronged preemptive strategy involving effective use of data, systems and community. Meghalaya’s efforts garnered National attention when the state set forth a behavioural change management strategy to mitigate the effects of COVID-19.
Further, under his charge of the health department, Meghalaya got its first ever Three Dimensional Positive Health Policy[Govt. Records 1]. Following this, he brought about innovative reforms to bridge the service delivery gap in the health sector. He received appreciation from MMSA[13] for addressing shortage of medical specialists in the State by recruiting 400 new doctors. Played a key role in signing an MoU[14] with the state Government of Tamil Nadu to support Meghalaya for recruitment and training of medical professionals.
In Meghalaya, he has been instrumental in improving MGNREGA implementation by reengineering the delivery systems and empowering grassroots institutions- the program expenditure increased by over 300 percent (from 40.2 to 170 million USD) in just four years. He played an instrumental role in enacting the first and only (till date) social audit legislation[15] in the country- the Meghalaya Community Participation and Public Services Social Audit Act of 2017 that provides for community-based auditing of all social programs and government services. He was also instrumental in enacting Meghalaya Farmers’ (Empowerment) Commission Act, 2019 to bring reforms in the agriculture sector. Meghalaya became the first State in India to bring an integrated water policy[16] aimed at mobilizing the people and the Government agencies for ensuring water security for present and future generations. He propagated the idea and implementation of field level leadership[17] as a tool to create leaders at the grassroots across Meghalaya, thereby ushering a silent revolution for effective Natural Resource Management at the community level[18].
He also conceptualised the Early Childhood Development for the State of Meghalaya, making the State one of the 1st in India to implement a mission of this caliber. (For this, Union Minister of Women & Child Development, Smriti Irani singled him out for praise for this initiative).
Owing to his exceptional contribution in improving the human developmental indicators, Kumar was appointed Development Commissioner to the State of Meghalaya in 2021. Kumar is a member of the Lancet Covid-19 India Taskforce[19] and a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley for Smart Village Movement.
In 2018, Kumar opted for a Voluntary Retirement from Service. However, his application for VRS was declined, owing to his excellent track record in the State, and for the purpose of retaining him for the State’s development endeavours. The chief minister Conrad K Sangma had interacted with him about various issues concerning Meghalaya and the shortage of officers in the state and urged upon him to continue his services to contribute to the development of the state.
The MBOSE agitation[20] of 2005 in Meghalaya: A turning point in Kumar’s career
As an IAS officer belonging to the Assam-Meghalaya Cadre, Kumar returned back from Andhra Pradesh to his parent cadre in Meghalaya in 2005 in order to obtain a No Objection Certificate from Meghalaya to be able to serve in the State of Assam. However, on September 30, 2005, the day that Kumar was scheduled to leave for Assam, a firing incident took place in Meghalaya’s West Garo Hills District in Tura, where about 9 student protestors were killed in a police firing. This went on to be known as the infamous ‘MBOSE firing incident’ in the history of Meghalaya.
At the time, Meghalaya was caught in a political crisis over the issue of restructuring the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE). The issue snowballed into a larger conflict between the Khasi and Garo tribes. The conflict took an ugly turn on September 30 when nine protesters were killed when the police opened fire on two Garo Students' Union (GSU) rallies in the headquarter towns of Tura and Williamnagar in the Garo Hills.
Following the incident, Kumar returned back to meet the then Chief Secretary of Meghalaya WMS Pariat, wherein he requested him to allow Kumar to handle the ongoing unrest in the Garo Hills Region and initiate the peace building exercise, while finding out the actual cause of discontent among the people. Following the request, Kumar was assigned charge as the Deputy Commissioner of Tura in West Garo Hills District of Meghalaya.
Peace Building & faith restoration following MBOSE Agitation in Tura
Kumar took upon himself to conduct a massive peace-building exercise in the region, and to find the root cause for people’s discontent. He went to DownTown Hospital in Guwahati to meet the people injured due to police firing during the MBOSE-Tura Agitation incident.
To get to the source of the problem Kumar went incognito and disguised himself as a member of an NGO. He stayed with the people in the villages of Meghalaya’s Garo Hills region for about a week and tried to learn the reasons that evoked sentiments, in the form of agitations from the people with respect to the MBOSE case.
He realized that one of the greatest issues was lack of public communication towards the MBOSE issue. People in Garo Hills were under the impression that the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) with its headquarters in Garo Hills, was being shifted to Shillong, located in the Khasi Hills region. And following this, they believed that students based in Garo Hills region could no longer attend examinations in the Khasi Hills Region. They perceived the act of strengthening the Shillong-MBOSE office, to deal with the problem of leakage and shortage of question papers, as moving the MBOSE headquarters from Tura to Shillong. And this implied that the Garo Hills region was being deprived of development, and this was in disagreement with the Hill State People’s Movement recommendations, which laid down that both the Garo and the Khasi Hills Region would develop at a uniform pace.
Further, the people had already been reeling under the feeling that the Garo Hills Region was lagging behind in terms of development as compared to its counterpart, the Khasi Hills region. Kumar also observed that even in terms of health & education, the region was lagging behind at the time. Further, it was also observed that most of the Civil Servants were either non-Garos, or from the Khasi Hills Region. There was hardly any representation from the Garo Hills Region. This contributed to the feeling of neglect among the people of the region.
Although efforts were in place from the Centre to accelerate developmental activities in the region, especially through the RSVY funds that were sanctioned by the Central Government to only the Garo Hills region of Meghalaya, people were not made aware of the same, hence contributing to the feeling of neglect. Kumar observed that there was a clear disconnect between the people and the administration.
During the course of his incognito village visits and community interactions, people confessed to the existence of several leakages within the erstwhile Indira Awaas Yojana, the housing scheme of the central government, which is currently operational as the PMAY Scheme. It was found that the beneficiaries were receiving only One Third of the total cost allotted under the scheme, while two thirds were diverted to either the block office or the block committee members nominated by the respective MLAs. This was a striking revelation.
The Solution
Kumar took the initiative to conduct a Social Audit of the housing scheme. Here, the records of the beneficiaries, the amount allotted, number of houses completed and the cost incurred, as per the government records since the last three years of the housing programme was made public. The same was shared with all the Nokmas (the local headmen in Meghalaya’s Garo Hills Region) of the respective villages. The Nokmas were asked to call for a meeting and read out the names, as per the records.
This practice garnered huge attention from all over the district. Several anomalies were brought to light through this Social Audit. The then Member of Parliament from the region, Mr. Purno Agitok Sangma, who had resigned during the MBOSE agitation, also took due note of this activity and highlighted the same across the media.
Kumar communicated to the people that although the Government had an intent to reach the last mile of the population, the same was suffering due to leakages contributing to faulty implementation of the schemes. Following this, Kumar proposed the establishment of Village Development Councils. However, instead of this, the Centre proposed the setting up of an alternative institution called the Village Employment Councils (VECs) under MGNREGA, for the 1st time in Meghalaya in the Garo Hills District. This was the first time that a village level institution came into being in Meghalaya, with an attempt to improve public communication and empower grassroot communities.
Publications
Kumar has co-authored the book-The Road from Sick Care to Healthcare[21]: How to add 80 billion productive years to our current generation which was published in early 2023. He has also written a chapter for ‘The Public Productivity and Performance Handbook’[22] called ‘Applying Competencies: State Capability Enhancement Project’.
He also regularly contributes articles at the World Economic Forum[23], Times of India[24], among others. Besides, he has co authored and commissioned several research papers and studies revolving around the themes of poverty reduction, women’s empowerment, rural development and participatory governance.
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- ^ "Notifications | Meghalaya Government Portal". meghalaya.gov.in. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ "Meghalaya govt conceptualises early childhood development programme". The Indian Express. 2021-12-23. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Singh, Bikash (2021-03-05). "Meghalaya Cabinet approves state health policy". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Singh, Bikash (2020-08-08). "Meghalaya approves policy on seat reservation for women in village employment councils". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ "Yanam", Wikipedia, 2023-08-20, retrieved 2023-08-22
- ^ "APRSE". aprs.apcfss.in. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Admin. "Home". CBIT. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ "Osmania University". www.osmania.ac.in. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
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- ^ "IRTS Welcomes You". www.irts.org.in. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Govt. Records
- ^ Singh, Bikash (2022-09-19). "Meghalaya signs MoU with Tamil Nadu for recruitment, training of medical professionals". The Economic Times. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ "The Meghalaya example". The Hindu. 2018-05-21. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Patel, Tanvi (2019-07-27). "Meghalaya First State to Implement Water Policy: IAS Officer Explains What It Means". The Better India. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Mr. Sampath Kumar IAS, CEO, MBDA explains the concept of Field Level Leadership (FLL) in Meghalaya, retrieved 2023-08-22
- ^ Let's talk NRM- Episode 1 with SHRI SAMPATH KUMAR, IAS, retrieved 2023-08-22
- ^ "Sampath Kumar". Lancet Commission on COVID-19. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ "A conflict in Meghalaya". Frontline. 2005-11-03. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ "The Road from Sickcare to Healthcare: How to add 80 bil…". Goodreads. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Holzer, Marc; Ballard, Andrew (2021-07-25). The Public Productivity and Performance Handbook. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-40219-3.
- ^ "How Meghalaya state's integrated approach is leading the way to universal health coverage in India". World Economic Forum. 2023-03-06. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
- ^ Phira, Sampath Kumar and Y. "Increasing voluntary blood donation: Key for several health and development goals". The Times of India. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
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