Covid-19 vaccination is very difficult in rural areas where enthusiasm is low and people sometimes have to be coaxed to take the vaccine. Local administrations try everything in the book to convince them to get vaccinated.
Jamnagar DC Kirtan Rathod is one such government official doing the hard part of convincing people. She has been assigned the task to get as many people vaccinated as she can.
She has been travelling from village to village trying to talk to locals about the benefits of the vaccine and the unfounded myths around it.
On Monday when Rathod was on a visit to Jodiya taluka health centre, she got information that about 100 people in village Bodka, about 50 km from Jamnagar, were resisting the vaccine even after health officers’ persuasions.
She immediately started off for Bodka with her team of a woman health officer, the sarpanch, talati etc. She found that the group, consisting of mostly Adivasi and Devipujak communities, had fear of fever post-vaccination due to which they might have to miss work and the daily wage.
Rathod explained to them and gave them assurances that they would not have to miss their wage. She advised them to take paracetamol after the vaccine and asked the health officer to do a medical check the next morning and later also if required. The villagers slowly gave in and started taking the shots. By 11 pm, 90 of the 100-odd had got vaccinated.