Cultural troupes have been deployed to perform street plays in local languages to get advocacy messages at 11,400 strategic locations across 36 districts of Maharashtra and 2 in Goa through the month of February to May 2021
In a bid to beat the challenge of covid-19 vaccine hesitancy among people, Maharashtra and Goa have chosen to take a creative route to ensure the key messages are shared using popular art forms to find resonance among local communities.
A collaborative advocacy campaign is being run by the Regional Outreach Bureau (Maharashtra and Goa Region) under Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in partnership with Public Health Department of Government of Maharashtra, WHO Country Office for India, and UNICEF.
Cultural troupes have been deployed to perform street plays in local languages to get advocacy messages at 11,400 strategic locations across 36 districts of Maharashtra and 2 in Goa through the month of February to May 2021 in a unique outreach advocacy programme.
The collaborative campaign has deployed 89 empanelled performing troupes and 16 vans -- 15 in Maharashtra and 1 in Goa states -- equipped with LED panels and audio announcement systems for the dissemination of covid-19 information in regional langsuages and local dialects.
The script reiterates updated information about the disease, covid-19 appropriate behaviours, and covid-19 vaccination to address concerns and counter infodemics that spread misinformation and fuel vaccine hesitancy.
The WHO-National Public Health Surveillance Programme (NPSP) is reviewing the technical contents of script and supporting capacity building of cultural troops with relevant and updated information on the disease and the available vaccines. The NPSP team is also assisting in the identification of key strategic places to halt vans for performances and LED display to maximise campaign impact and reach.
WHO is also supporting the government in impact assessment of the activities in selected districts to document the effort and help build replicable models for other health advocacy campaigns.
Six States, Maharashtra, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat, are reporting a surge in daily new cases. They together account for 80.63% of the new cases reported in last 24 hours. The country recorded over 53,476 new covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
Maharashtra continues to report the highest daily new cases at 31,855 (59.57%). It is followed by Punjab with 2,613 while Kerala reported 2,456 new cases. Three states, Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, account for 74.32% of total active cases in the country. Maharashtra alone accounts for 62.91% of the total active cases in the country. Goa so far recorded over 57,170 covid-19 cases.
The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on 16th Jan 2021 with vaccination of healthcare workers (HCWs) and vaccination of the frontline workers (FLWs) started from 2nd Feb 2021.The next phase of covid-19 vaccination commenced from 1st March 2021 for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. Government also opened covid-19 vaccination for all persons above 45 years of age irrespective of any comorbid condition starting April 1, considering the age group most vulnerable to the disease.
The vaccine hesitancy continues to prevail in India with government not having met the target of vaccinating 3 crores of healthcare and frontline workers.
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