Doctors continue Covid vax drive in Maoist belts

  • | Friday | 9th April, 2021

RAIPUR: It`s a village of a little over 300 and about 60 are eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine. But every time Dr Bhuneshwar Warma has to leave for Chameli in Chhattisgarh, he knows the government vehicles can only go so far. "There`s about 5km of hills to be trekked. Older people who can walk can come to us. But we have to go to those who can`t," said Warma, posted at Palnar, about 35km from Dantewada. "The government has given us buses.

RAIPUR: It`s a village of a little over 300 and about 60 are eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine. But every time Dr Bhuneshwar Warma has to leave for Chameli in Chhattisgarh, he knows the government vehicles can only go so far. "There`s about 5km of hills to be trekked. Older people who can walk can come to us. But we have to go to those who can`t," said Warma, posted at Palnar, about 35km from Dantewada. "The government has given us buses.

Where buses can`t go, we have a small Tata Magic. Where that can`t go, we walk - trekking mountains, wading throu-gh rivers, with our vaccine cold storage equipment." The vaccination drive each day is from 9am to 5pm. But health workers have to be out at sunrise to be able to reach the remote areas. And as long as there are people in queue, they don`t shut down for the day.

The vaccination drive in the Maoist belts of Chhattisgarh is a challenge for many reasons. The lines between "state" and "Maoist" villages are clearly drawn. The shadow of violence looms over every day and every life, the terrain is difficult, awareness low and some areas are just not on the grid. "In Naxal areas, 70-80% are not going to primary health centres for Covid-19 vaccination. Even for routine immunisation of children, they never go. It is only if we go into the interior areas th-at vaccination coverage is possible," said a government doctor in a `Red district`. The Centre`s notification says Chhattisgarh has 14 districts where Ma-oists are active, half of the sta-te`s 28 districts. Of the 33 lakh vaccine doses administered in the state, about 12.6 lakh have been given in the Red belt.

Because these areas have been cut off, awareness has been low. "A lot of people think they don`t need vaccines. They say had it been such a dangerous epidemic, village after village would have been wiped out," said Dr Dorpa Orchha, a government doctor and the first from the indigenous Abujhmadia community. Another doctor, who did not want to be named, said even frontline and healthcare workers were sceptical at first. "On the first day, I remember, we had a target of 300. We vaccinated only 15 people." So, they started focusing on awareness camps. "The sarpanch told me to go get vaccinated.

Both my wife and I did," said Sonu Husendi, 65, among the first in his village, Gotulpara in Narayanpur district, to be vaccinated. In many villages, the panchayats and sarpanches have been engaged to spread the word. In others, the district administration had been sending messengers with drums to get the message across. And the regular messaging through loudspeakers on roving vehicles continued.

As has the transport grid to get people to vaccination centres. "We keep running rounds of vehicles getting people to vaccination centres," said Dr Santosh Patel, district manager, National Health Mission, Dantewada.


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