E-Paper
Health worker takes shot to kill vaccine hesitancy in UP’s tribal area
Until three months back the entire team of health workers used to sit and wait for even a single person from the three villages of Sariyapara, Bhuda and Bankati to turn up for vaccination, but without luck.
Sarita Rana, an auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) associated with the community health centre (CHC) at Bankati gram panchayat of Palia block of Lakhimpur Kheri, took the Covid vaccine shot herself and also got her family inoculated in full public view, hoping to dispel some myths associated with Covid-19 vaccines among villagers.
“Busting the myths surrounding the Covid-19 vaccine is a tough task, which health workers often face while carrying out the inoculation drive in the Tharu tribe dominated rural pockets of Uttar Pradesh,” said Rana, herself a Tharu and an active health worker since 2011.
She is spearheading the vaccination drive in the tribal villages of the gram panchayat where people have strong traditional beliefs and think that vaccination brings bad omen or curse to the village.
“We realised that we have to change the mindset of people,” she said while recalling her struggles in promoting vaccination in the Tharu dominated villages, located mostly in forest areas.
“Initially, I thought it would be easy but gradually realised I was wrong. Until three months back, there was a time when the entire team of health workers used to sit and wait throughout the day and not even a single person from the three villages of Sariyapara, Bhuda and Bankati used to turn up at the vaccination camps,” said Rana.
Things started changing only after she decided to present her own example before her people.
“A couple of days after I took the jab, the villagers realised that the vaccine wasn’t causing problems to people and they were eventually convinced to take the shots,” she added.
“We went to Bankati again to set up a vaccination camp and saw people queue up for vaccination. This was a golden moment for all of us,” she added.
Palia and Nighasan blocks in Kheri district have high density of Tharu population with Palia block accounting for 52,266 and Nighasan for 14,500 tribe members.
The situation is no different in Nighasan block’s Bela Parsua and Danga villages. Danga has a Tharu population of 9,500, of which 1,778 have got vaccinated so far. In Bela Parsua village, only 400 out of 5,000 have taken the jabs so far.
Dr Lalji Pasi, in-charge of CHC (Nighasan block) refused to comment on the issue.
Apart from Lakhimpur Kheri, other districts like Gorakhpur, Bahraich, Basti and Gonda in UP too house Tharu population of around 11 lakh (according to the 2011 census). Health workers said there was a need for a targeted drive to cover the tribal areas of UP to counter vaccine hesitancy.
