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Rajasthan village has unique punishment for those violating Covid-19 norms
Rajasthan recorded 159 deaths and 17,921 coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking the death toll to 5,665 and the infection tally to 756,707.
A small village in Rajasthan’s Dholpur is punishing villagers, who do not wear face masks, by making them stand guard at village check-posts in its bid to enforce Covid appropriate behaviour.
The villagers of Kaithri in Dholpur say the punishment serves a message to the community that one person’s complacency cannot be allowed to put others life at grave risk at a time when nearby towns in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh are struggling to contain Covid cases with hospitals overflowing with patients.
“Simple admonishments don’t work. We had some people within the village who shrugged off the gravity [of the situation] by calling Coronavirus an illness confined only to big cities. Therefore, we started community services at check posts to drive home the point that no one is immune from the illness and the attendant suffering,” said sarpanch Ajay Pal Sharma.
Rajasthan recorded 159 deaths and 17,921 coronavirus cases on Sunday, taking the death toll to 5,665 and the infection tally to 756,707. A strict lockdown till May 24 has come into force in the state from Monday restricting movement from one district/village to another except in case of medical emergency. Movement of all vehicles except those engaged in medical services is also prohibited.
According to Kaithri sarpanch, in the last one week, as many as 28 villagers have been made to man the check posts since they didn’t wear masks properly. Apart from standing guard at the check-posts, they are instructed to spread awareness about the importance of social distancing and sanitisation in fighting the disease.
Sharma said they realised the need for taking serious steps after noticing that several villagers continued to act irresponsibly despite 11 residents testing positive last month. “We held a meeting that something needed to be done, so we decided to set-up barricades for outsiders, and for people within the village, a two-day duty at the check posts was agreed upon.”
The ideas seemed to have worked, at least for now, says the sarpanch Most of the villagers stepping out of their homes are now wearing proper masks or covering their faces with Gamchaas. The village has not reported any fresh case of Covid-19, and all the 11 patients have recovered too.
According to the district collector Rakesh Kumar Jaiswal, Kaithri has been at the forefront of the fight against Covid-19. “The village has a very good vaccination record; they also undertake regular sanitization work. The efforts at the panchayat level will go in a long way in our collective fight against the coronavirus,” he said.
