Gullible and afraid, villagers give testing, jabs a go by
The lanes that once had children frolicking, young ones playing cricket and adults keeping an eye on them, lie almost deserted. Sneaking out of the main room is allowed, not stepping out.
The fear of the Coronavirus is palpable in Mauaima village but despite the number of deaths, people here dread testing and vaccination even more. Mauaima Gram Panchayat, is one of the biggest rural settlements of Prayagraj’s trans-Ganga area, located around 35km from Sangam city.
“People are illiterate and they believe rumours like a positive Covid test would result in the entire family being hospitalised or a free vaccination could make you sicker. Thus, many will hide their symptoms and try to get treated on their own which has cost many dear,” said the newly elected gram pradhan Tirthraj
Yadav, 36. Though officials claim the village has witnessed only four to six deaths due to Covid-19, locals say that around four times that number have died—last rites of whom, they claim, were performed by villagers at hurried ceremonies locally or at the ghat in Phaphamau.
“Four confirmed deaths in different hamlets of the village, including three of the same family in Chauhan-Ka-Pura Majra including that of Ashok Kumar, his mother and uncle in just the past fortnight has people scared and worried. If one goes by cremations and burials, we have had around 25 deaths in just the past few months with most dying after showing symptoms of fever, cough and breathing trouble. But their kin preferred to not get them tested despite efforts to make them change their mind,” said the gram pradhan.
Medical facilities too have been hit in the area as the CHC, which was upgraded from a PHC around a year back, is yet to get
staff as per its upgraded status owing to the pandemic outbreak and is functioning with staff meant for a PHC.
With Covid-19 outbreak, regular OPD and pathology tests have been stopped at the CHC and during the past one year it is fully geared towards taking on Covid-19.
Doctors here claimed that emergency cases, deliveries, besides Covid-19 patients were being attended to and that all medicines were available.
CHC in-charge Dr Ram Gopal Verma said that Covid-19 rapid antigen testing started at the CHC around a year back with the outbreak of the pandemic in
Prayagraj, in around April 2020, while the vaccination started on January 16, 2021. “So far, we have distributed 471 medicine kits among locals between May 5 and May 9 during phase-1 of the house-to-house survey, while in Phase-2, which began on May 11 and will continue until May 15, so far, we have distributed 29 medicine kits among villagers,” he added.
The Mauaima village comprising 18-odd hamlets or Majras — with a combined population of around 25,000 has around 50% literacy rate, according to the Pradhan, but the count of Intermediate pass or graduates is very low. Out of a population of 25,000, OBCs are around 12,000, SCs around 8,000 and Muslims accounting for around 5,000.
Most Muslims here are engaged in working on powerlooms, a major chunk of others work as daily wage labourers in nearby cities and 20% working in other states like Delhi, MP and Maharashtra in low key jobs, while the rest are into farming locally.
Mohd Waseem, 42, of Bataha Majra of the village, who owns around 100 power-looms and is considered locally influential, said, “Around 500 people here have contracted Covid-19 or showed symptoms of influenza like illness (ILI) but merely one in five went to the community health centre located right in the middle of the Gram Panchayat having free Covid-19 testing, treatment and vaccination facilities,” he said.
Waseem also believes that unfounded fears often deter locals from getting tested and treated at the CHC these days.
Though CHC in-charge Dr Ram Gopal Verma claims that house-to-house testing was being carried out with the help of 160 teams and around 250 to 300 tests being performed at CHC each day on an average, many villagers claim that no one visited them between May 5 and May 9 when the state-wide drive to identify Covid-19 patients was underway across the state.
“By the time the second phase gets over, all homes will be properly covered,” he said Dr Verma conceded that 4-6 confirmed Covid-19 cases were being found each day. “Lack of cooperation from people of Mauaima Gram Panchayat has been a tough challenge,” he added.