It’s a success story for India’s Covid-19 vaccination drive as Madhya Pradesh’s Jhabua district, which had a dismal record for jabs, is now among the top districts with a high vaccination percentage. In fact, the Narsinghrunda village in the district now holds the distinction of becoming the first 100& vaccinated village in the state and found a mention in front of PM Narendra Modi during his visit to Bhopal.
Part of the tribal heartland Jhabua, around 350km from state capital Bhopal, the village was apprehensive about the vaccination drive. Rumours of vaccine leading to deaths, impotency and pregnancy issues had landed in the village even before the vaccine arrived.
Apprehensive of possible side effects, the locals avoided visiting vaccination centres and even turned away the teams of healthcare workers from their households.
Bhoorie Bai, the local ASHA worker, said the villagers would refuse the jab, saying they would die within a month after taking the vaccine. “We assured them that nothing of this sort will happen. We cited our own example as we had taken the vaccine,” she said.
Three health workers and two frontline workers were pressed into service for the vaccination drive in the village and all of them were vaccinated with the first dose in January and February.
However, the health staff — aided by the administration and their superiors — kept persuading the locals to take the vaccine. Young vaccination volunteers ‘Saathiya’ were pressed into service and they urged their parents to get vaccinated, recounts District Vaccination Officer Dr Rahul Ganawa.
“Some senior citizens who took the vaccine initially and were safe persuaded others and this helped a great deal,” Dr Ganawa added.
By the first week of June, the staff inoculated everyone with the first dose but the battle was only half won. The health workers kept their spirits high and maintained written records of all the first dose beneficiaries with details such as names, parents’ name, house number, date of first dose and due date for the second one.
Shunning initial trend of administering vaccines, the volunteers started reaching out to locals at home, in farms, markets and far-flung settlements for vaccination.
Through these dedicated efforts, the village achieved 100% vaccination on September 12. This includes 20 people above 60 years of age, 16 in the age group of 45-60 years and a total of 74 people between 18 and 44 years.
Not only this village, most of the areas in Jhabua had similar aversions to the vaccine initially, said Dr Ganawa, adding the district was at the last place (51st) among others in MP in the first few months but persistent efforts of ground workers, awareness from administration and calls from the prime minister and chief minister changed the scenario.
In the latest weekly rankings of vaccinations, Jhabua stood at 25th place while completing 97.37% first doses and 38.8% second doses. According to CoWin portal, the district has till November 16 administered a total of 8,68,187 doses.
Lauding the indigenous community’s inclusive participation in the Covid-19 vaccination drive, PM Modi had said at the ‘Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas’ on Monday: “It’s heartening that the ethnic community has wholeheartedly taken part in Covid-19 vaccination drive when even people in developing countries are questioning the vaccine. Others have a lot to learn from the community.”
Vaccination status in MP
As on November 16, Madhya Pradesh has completed over 5.03 crore first doses of the vaccine while over 2.59 crore have crossed second doses as of now. A total of 3.72 lakh were inoculated across the state on Tuesday. The state needs to inoculate a little less than three crore beneficiaries by December 31.
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