E-Paper
Centre mulling doorstep vaccination for bed-ridden, disabled: Health ministry to SC
Advocate Pankaj Sinha who appeared for the petitioner organization questioned the data on disabled persons getting vaccinated when there was no mechanism either under CoWIN or at the Covid-19 vaccination centres to identify persons with disabilities. As the bench had not gone through the affidavit, the matter was posted to Thursday.
The Centre is open to having mobile vaccination teams to facilitate Covid-19 vaccination at doorsteps for bed-ridden people and those facing extreme disability. It has directed states and union territories to prepare a list of such people in every district.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has written a letter to all states and union territories on September 22 and is awaiting responses. This information was told to the Supreme Court in an affidavit filed by the Union Health Ministry while responding to a PIL filed by NGO Evara Foundation seeking ease of access for disabled persons to get Covid-19 vaccination. One of the prayers sought in this petition was to enable doorstep vaccination of persons with disabilities who face difficulty to either access the CoWIN digital interface or the Covid-19 vaccination centres.
“Vaccination at home has its own logistic and medical complexities,” the Union government said, adding “the MoHFW recognizes that despite efforts made, there may still be some people who might be bed-ridden or have extremely restricted mobility or disability and/or special needs that may hamper their accessibility even to near-to-home Covid vaccination centres (NHCVC).”
In its advisory issued on September 22, the Centre has asked states/UTs to prepare a “line-list of all such potential beneficiaries and their care-givers” and to collate this list at the district level. Subsequent to this information being gathered, the Centre said, “Best efforts would be employed on case to case basis, considering logistic and medical exigencies, for facilitating vaccination of all such beneficiaries at their place of residence using mobile vaccination teams.” A nodal officer has also been designated in each district for this purpose by MoHFW to oversee the implementation.
On Saturday, the PIL was taken up by for hearing by a bench of Justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and AS Bopanna where Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the Centre. Bhati informed the Court that Covid-19 vaccination centres were arranged near to homes of people above 60 and those faced with disabilities. Under this scheme, nearly 17.26 crore vaccine doses have been administered in a short span of four months, from May 27 (when the scheme was launched) till September 27, ASG Bhati said.
Advocate Pankaj Sinha who appeared for petitioner organization questioned the data on disabled persons getting vaccinated when there was no mechanism either under CoWIN or at the Covid vaccination centres to identify persons with disabilities. As the bench had not gone through the affidavit, the matter was posted to Thursday.
On the previous hearing on September 20 when notice was issued on the PIL, the Court noted four areas of concern – doorstep vaccination for persons with disability and their caregivers, preference for scheduling vaccination slots, accessibility of CoWIN web portal and mobile app for persons with disabilities, and scheduling of vaccinations through a dedicated helpline number other than CoWIN portal or app. The bench was concerned as persons with disabilities have rights protected under the Right of Persons with Disability Act 2016 which follows the principle of “reasonable accommodation”.
The PIL had said that Section 25 of the 2016 Act provided for “barrier free accessibility of medical facilities” for persons with disability. It stated that disabled persons should not be required to visit the vaccination centres due to the risk of getting exposed to COVID infection as such persons cannot maintain social distancing and those with psychological disabilities cannot ensure use of face masks and face shields for their protection.
The petition urged the Court to direct for door-to-door vaccination on priority basis pointing out that the Indian Council of Medical Research had already recommended for doorstep vaccination. The states of Jharkhand and Kerala have already implemented this policy, the petition stated.
