NGO to help homeless people get vaccinated

A Delhi-based NGO is helping vaccinate people living in government-run shelters against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19)

A Delhi-based NGO is helping vaccinate people living in government-run shelters against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

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The Centre for Holistic Development (CHD) is registering eligible people on the CoWin government portal.

Sunil Aledia, CHD executive director, said, “There are a lot of people in shelters who meet the criteria, either above the age of 60 or are at least 45 years old with co-morbidities) but left out of the vaccination drive unintentionally.”

“We will be taking them for vaccination on March 16. We are hoping to register 100-150 people from across the city. We have also discussed this with district administrations and the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (which runs the shelters) to find a way to get homeless people vaccinated,” said Aledia.

There are close to 200 government-run shelter homes, which are under DUSIB and managed by various NGOs.

Indu Prakash, a member of the Supreme Court-appointed monitoring committee for homeless shelters in Delhi, said, “The government should have a special drive to get the homeless, including those are not living in shelters, vaccinated. While most may have identity cards, several may not and some measure should be devised to inoculate them too.”

A senior DUSIB official said, “We are working on a plan to get these people vaccinated. So far, no decision has been taken.”

Those running the shelter homes say that while identifying vulnerable people as per the criteria is not difficult, but the real challenge is to take them to the vaccination centres. “A lot of us don’t have the resources to take these people to the inoculation centre. Also, some of the people, especially those who are above 45 years of age, have to be examined by a doctor for comorbidities before they can be registered for vaccination. There is a need to arrange a medical screening of these people,” said Rajesh Kumar, national executive director of Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM).