Rural India shows the way in COVID time

Story by  ATV | Posted by  Aasha Khosa • 2 Years ago
Townsfolk getting medicines at doorsteps
Townsfolk getting medicines at doorsteps

 

 

New Delhi

Amid the alarming spurt in the number of Covid-19 and resultant panic across the country, a small town in Rajasthan and a village in Punjab have set examples for the rest of the country on how communities can deal with the situation.

While in Rajasthan a town has successfully launched home delivery of medicines in Moda district, an entire village has been covered under COVID vaccine inoculation even as most people in Punjab are showing hesitation to take the jab.

In a small town of Dungarpur in northern Rajasthan the people with the help of administration and elected councillors have launched a 'medicine at your doorsteps' initiative under which the police, the administration, the local councillors and many other entities are working together to deliver medical help at their doorsteps of the townfolks.

The project was launched in Dungarpur in the southernmost part of Rajasthan on April 13 with the initiative of District Collector Suresh Ola said Chief Medical Health Officer (CMHO) Rajesh Sharma.

The medicines are being provided to patients in different households suffering from serious ailments, seasonal disease, pregnancy-related issues and so on," Sharma said.

Besides medicines, hand gloves, medicines, sanitisers etc. are also being delivered.

"Our team is available round the clock to serve the needy. We are serving them even during the night hours," he said.

The project has been a hit in the Dungarpur municipality area, following which it was started in the Sagwara municipality too, Sharma said.

Volunteers home delivering medicines

"With the number of Covid cases growing on a daily basis, we formed a team by roping in nursing students, private institutes, ANM workers, urban bodies and so on. We have also formed a WhatsApp group where the local councillors raise demands which the collectors and the SP, who are also the group admins, take forward. We try to resolve the problems on the same day without causing any delay," he said.

"Looking at our initiative, Health Secretary Siddharth Mahajan said in a video conference that other cities should also follow our model. Cities like Banswara and Udaipur have already started similar initiatives," Sharma added.

District Collector Suresh Ola said that the second wave of Covid-19 has posed many challenges across the nation, with seasonal diseases making the matters worse.

 "Those with comorbidities are frightened to visit the hospitals. They also face threat from high-risk patients. Hence we launched this model by joining hands with the municipal teams and the medical department," Ola said.

Punjab village Story

Saffuwala, a village in Daroli Bhai block of Moga district of Punjab has become an example for the rest of the country as all its 370 inhabitants who are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine has been inoculated.

Of this population 175 of them are 60 years or older.

A villager receiving the vaccine jab

Of this population 175 of them are 60 years or older.

This is encouraging as the health department across Punjab is facing hesitation among people for taking the jab of COVID vaccine. This hesitation is common among the general public as well as the health workers of the state.

Therefore the villagers of Saffuwala village have set an example to break the negativity towards the vaccine. Among the locals, 250 villagers had got themselves vaccinated in a single day in the camp set up for them.

According to the news published in the English newspaper The Indian Express, to encourage people, the village sarpanch, Lakhwant Singh, 47  was the first to take the jab. This convinced villages who followed the suit.

The villagers also joined in the sanitation campaign before taking the jab at a special camp set up for a day.

Doctors also believe that getting 250 people vaccinated in a single village in a day is nothing short of a miracle, that is, when the rumors against the vaccine are rife across many parts of Punjab.