233 Chhattisgarh Tribal villages 100% covered with first Covid jab: Report

In June 2021, reports emerged that the village Renganar in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist-dominated Dantewada district, with merely 30 percent literacy rate has created history by being the first village to achieve 100% vaccination of both doses.

On being asked how the State managed such impressive vaccination drive Chhattisgarh Covid vaccination in-charge Dr Priyanka Shukla told National Herald that not one but as many as 233 villages in 9 tribal dominated districts of Chhattisgarh has attained 100 percent first dose of vaccination and around 15-20 of the villages have attained 100 per cent of both doses of vaccinations.

Nearly 30 percent of all of Chhattisgarh has received the first dose of vaccine putting the state ahead of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Rajasthan in terms of population-wise vaccination coverage. The national average of vaccination in the country is around 22 per cent.

Two particular Blocks in the Sarguja district, namely Mainpat and Sitapur, have achieved remarkable success in vaccination where around five villages have attained 100 percent vaccination of both doses and a dozen other villages have attained 95 to 99 percent of both doses.

Villages Bagdo and Putargondi kala in Block Mohla, district Rajnandangaon has achieved 100 percent vaccination of both the doses and few other villages like Kudumkasa, Jharan have done 97-99% vaccination of both doses.

It has not been easy for the administration to achieve these results. There are several myths and fears among the tribal belt against the Covid-19 vaccines such as fear of impotency and death. “They will make various excuses to avoid the vaccination, sometimes they will say I am having a fever, some of them will be scared because injections hurt. Those with pre-existing conditions of diabetes, hyper-tension also get scared. But we check their vitals, refer to their existing medication, doctor’s prescription if any and try to assure them that all precautions are taken to ensure vaccine is safe for them,” says Ms Hemlata, an auxiliary nurse-midwife (ANM) from Raigarh. “A certain family in Chatipali village was too adamant and refused to take the vaccine repeatedly. We had to make several visits to their doorstep along with the Sarpanch to explain and convince,” she added.

Vaccine awareness have been done at village level by making door to door visits by teams consisting of ASHA workers, Mitanins, ANMs, Teachers, Gram Panchayat Sachiv, Rojgar Sahayak among others. Several state departments including the health department, education departments, women and child development, PWD, Collectorate have been working in tandem to raise awareness and rush against time to administer vaccines to as many as possible.

Nearly 1 crore vaccines have been administered in the state of Chattisgarh.

“Vaccine camps are set up in the villages which are far off and the villagers could not travel to the cities. Some of the best practices we followed were to hold regular meetings with villagers, village Patel, Sarpanch, Secretary, Teacher, Mitanin, Anganwadi workers. Teams have been formed at the panchayat, village level to raise awareness and motivate each other,” said Raigad District Immunization Officer (DIO) Dr Bhanu Pratap Patel.

Vaccination Teams have to cover a long journey and stay on the fields raising awareness from 7 am in the morning to as late as 9 to 10 pm in the night which can get very tiring. Is it safe, are the family members complaining that the women staff such as Mitanin, ANMs are away from home till late night? “Not at all, I am a working woman, this is our job, our families are also adjusted to our schedule,” said Hemlata.

To motivate the health workers and other dedicated staff in this ardent tasks jingles have been composed which speaks of how the Raigadvasi are true to their promise, determined and courageous to win the fight over Corona. “We share these songs with each other on WhatsApp use them as ringtones just to feel motivated and rejuvenated,” said Dr Patel.

“Awareness raising does not only mean telling them to get vaccinated, but we also try to give complete knowledge as to how the vaccination would help. We inform them about the medical guidelines we receive from the health department and try to share as much as possible about the vaccine trials,” said Dr Patel. “Sometimes they see other people getting the vaccine and falling ill and get scared. So, we explain why initially a bit of fever is normal” he said emphasising on the need for informed consent.

In case of any discomfort that the villagers may face or if they have any emergency situation, we have arrangements of express ambulances to provide health services. There are dedicated ambulances for the tribal belt. In addition, there are the helpline numbers 102, 108 to provide free medical services, said the DIO.

The health workers and other the administration staff have taken up the vaccination drive as a noble mission and not just a 9-5 job. Speaking of a particular memorable experience Dr Patel said, “Demands were raised at State level from our district that if more vaccine doses were provided to us we would be able to vaccinate faster. Around 1 lac vials were provided, and we already had around 50,000 with us. Our Collector sir threw us a challenge asking us to try and achieve 75,000 does in a day, which would motivate other districts as well as help mitigate vaccine hesitancy. In a single day, from 7 am to 7 pm we managed to administer 1,43,000 doses. It was a very memorable day. Several other districts and villages soon ramped up their vaccination drive.”

We are doing this for the next generation. One can still come to terms with losing the old but to see children dying is unbearable. We are hoping to achieve herd immunity, so that the children are safe from contracting the virus, says Dr Patel.