Malick Asghar Hashmi/New Delhi

Sunni Central Organization of Nagpur launched a campaign with the slogan 'Shahar Ko Corona Se Azadi' (Freedom to our city from Corona virus).The campaign was about this Muslim social organization joining hands with the administration for motivating people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 in areas where people were reluctant to get the jab.

According to the 2011 census in Nagpur, the city of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, the Muslim population is 8.40 percent. To begin with the Muslims of this city was hesitant to take the vaccination due to misconceptions and myths. Some were not to tech savvy to get themselves registered on the web portal and then pursue getting the date and slot fo the vaccination.

It was to counter such reluctance that this organization started the campaign to free the city of Corona.

Interestingly, after a few days, the Union Ministry of Minorities has also started a campaign – Jaan Hai To Jahan Hai, on similar line in which social and Muslim organizations are involved. But Nagpur's campaign is different.

Ghulam Qadir, former GM in the Western Cold Field and not active in this campaign, told Awaz-the voice, "A big conference was held in Nagpur on June 15 to create an environment for the vaccine among the Muslims of the city. Nagpur Municipal Corporation and social organization CSR played an important role in it. Besides the Additional Commissioner of the Corporation Ram Joshi, the Imams, Muslim organizations and well-known personalities of the community participated in it.

The Municipal Corporation is running 70 vaccination centers in the city. Joshi says that the ongoing misunderstandings about Corona being circulated in social media have misled many Muslims of the city. With this, with the cooperation of the Muslims organization, it’s expected that vaccination among Muslims will improve.

The prominent Muslims did the brainstorming and ended up chalking out a special strategy to make the vaccine campaign a success. Under this, a vaccine center has been opened at Sunni Center of Hazrat Nizamuddin Colony on Kalamana Road.

The Center seeks to vaccinate at least 50 persons daily. More such centers will be opened in other parts of the city. On the first day of the campaign, Maulana Syed Alamgir was among those vaccinated. Imams of all the mosques of the city have also been linked to this campaign. Muslims are being encouraged to get the jab.