Pradhans, kotedars, clerics to fight vaccine hesitancy in villages

LUCKNOW: To counter the vaccine hesitancy among rural people, the state health and family welfare department has decided to project newly elected gram pradhans as role models, take support of fair price shop owners (kotedars), religious heads, social organisations, local influential people besides organising intensive awareness campaign.

Additional chief secretary, health and family welfare Amit Mohan Prasad said the health department had urged the villagers not to believe in misleading publicity about the vaccine.

“The vaccine is safe, has no side-effect. It will protect them from Covid infection,” he said.

To increase the coverage of the vaccination, the state government has decided to focus in rural areas that witnessed outbreak of Covid-19 during the second wave.

Large mortality was also reported in the rural hubs that remained safe during the first wave last year.

In May, the village surveillance committees had detected symptomatic and suspected Covid positive cases in 28,742 villages out of the 79,512 villages surveyed under the statewide ‘test-trace-treat’ campaign in Uttar Pradesh, said a health department officer.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday directed the officers to launch Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in villages that are free of Covid case. He also told the officers to increase the vaccination three folds from July.

The state government has set the target to give one crore vaccine doses in June.

According to 2011 census, around 16 crore population in the state resides in the rural areas and we will have to inoculate the entire rural population to increase the vaccination coverage, the officer said.

Even as vaccination has picked up in rural hubs, the vaccinators are facing resistance in the rural areas in majority of the districts.

In comparison to the west and central UP, the vaccination is moving at slow pace in the districts of East UP and Bundelkhand region due to indifference among the villagers toward Covid vaccine.

In fact, after the second wave the vaccination drive slumped further with rumours and doubts being spread in the rural areas, he said.

The health department has decided to present the gram pradhans as vaccine role model among the villagers.

To generate confidence among villagers, the gram pradhans of 59,074 gram panchayats have been urged to take the jab along with their family members.

Majority of the gram pradhans have adhered to our advice and it had a positive impact on the villagers. The gram pradhans who get the eligible people vaccinated in their gram panchayats will be felicitated as well, the officer said.

Also, since villagers are visiting the fair price shops to collect ration, we have urged the ‘kotedars’ to motivate the people to take the jab.

The local influential people, religious leaders have been also roped in to motivate the villagers. The assistance of the NCC and NSS cadets is being also taken to bring the people – old or handicap to the vaccination centres, he said.

All the district magistrates have been directed to review the vaccination in rural areas and visit the booths located in far flung areas to streamline vaccination.

The officers have also been directed to take action against the anti –social elements who spread rumours or try to create hurdle in the vaccination drive, said a state government officer.

Additional chief secretary, information, Navneet Sehgal said, to break the Covid infection chain the state government had conducted maximum 70% sample test in rural areas.

With the decline in the cases, the government has decided to immunize maximum of the rural population.