Vaccination camp for specially-abled, transgenders & senior citizens on June 7

The social welfare department of Gautam Budh Nagar administration is holding a separate vaccination camp for the differently-abled, transgenders and senior citizens in Noida on June 7

Noida: The social welfare department of Gautam Budh Nagar administration is holding a separate vaccination camp for the differently-abled, transgenders and senior citizens in Noida on June 7. The camp will be held from 10am to 4pm at Vikas Bhavan auditorium located in Greater Noida, officials said.

A health worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine at sector 30 district hospital, in Noida, India, on Thursday, June 03, 2021 (Sunil Ghosh / Hindustan Times).

A target of vaccinating 200 people above 18 years has been set, the officials said.

“The department concerned has identified 50 differently-abled beneficiaries, while 70 people have been identified from the old age home run by the social welfare department in Greater Noida. Apart from this, the district magistrate has instructed to include transgenders in the drive as well. Hence, we are publicising among their communities that they can come and get vaccinated here,” said Shailendra Bahadur Singh, district social welfare officer, GB Nagar.

He said that the registration of transgenders for vaccination will be done on June 4 and 5 at room number 117, Vikas Bhawan. Since people from other categories have already been identified, their details are with the administration and their prior registration is not required, said the officials.

“It is very difficult to convince people in the transgender community to come and get vaccinated. Two days back, I reached out to their community leader over phone but she said that they do not ‘trust’ vaccines. Her brother got fever a day after getting vaccinated so they got scared. However, I tried to make them understand that it is just a side effect,” said Singh.

Ram Kali, a transgender who works with the NGO Basera Samajik Sansthan, said that the community follows what their leader tells them to. “Various rounds of counselling are required to get transgenders vaccinated as they only follow what their community leader tells them. We have so far been able to get only around 50 transgenders vaccinated at the Sector 30 district hospital,” she said. The NGO works with over 2,000 transgenders in GB Nagar.

As per a statement from the social welfare department, people from the transgender community can contact at 7042563106 for registration.