Bhubaneswar, Oct 18: Government of Odisha initiated mission Suvidya in collaboration with NABET-QCI late December 2019 with an effort to standardise the management processes, systems and procedures in SSD hostels and thereby further improve the basic services.

As part of this Mission, NABET-QCI collaborated with ST & SC Development Department to assess, evaluate and benchmark these hostels. The evaluation of the residential hostels was based primarily on seven parameters: Governance & management. Health & Nutrition, Safety & Security, Human Resource, Basic Amenities & Recreation and Quality Assurance Mechanism. Final grade was awarded to each hostel on the basis of their facilities, initiatives and processes under these parameters. The end objective was to provide concrete recommendations to prepare these hostels for ISO 9001:2015 certification.

Under Phase I of the project NABET assessed total 246 residential hostels in two districts – Keonjhar (156 hostels) and Sambalpur (90 hostels) respectively. Of these, 60 hostels in Keonjhar and 12 in Sambalpur were selected by the department for intensive interventions of gap filling towards attaining ISO 9001:2015 certification. All 44 hostels assessed before the imposition of the COVID-19 lockdown, qualified the assessment parameters and were awarded ISO Certification.

Encouraged by the results, the ST&SC Development Department planned to take u assessment of hostels in 10 more districts under the upscaled phase of the Project. The Project methodology will be carried out in a 2 phased manner. Phase-I will cover all 1283 hostels spread over 10 districts while Phase 2 will be conducted for only those hostels Deemed Prepared (DP) for onsite assessment after Phase-I.

The complete methodology in phase I will be implemented through a smart IT enabled solution which will be LIVE from 15th October. The selected hostels will conduct self assessment through the online desktop application. The report and score of self-assessment will shared with the NABET team through the application. A pre-visit virtual tour to gauge the readiness of the hostel will also be undertaken by NABET team through the online application. The evidence/records required for assessing the virtual tour will be uploaded by each selected hostel on the online platform. Onsite assessment shall only be planned for hostels after they have shared their self-assessment score along with documentary evidences with NABET Team.