Have faith in vaccine, tribals being told through hakims & pujaris

Nagpur: District collectors of Gadchiroli and Nagpur are adopting innovative measures to counter vaccine hesitancy among tribal population who have been distracted by messages in social media claiming deaths and impotency due to vaccination against Covid-19.
Gadchiroli collector Dipak Singla and his Nagpur counterpart Ravindra Thakare are asking the local village ‘doctors’ like hakims or bhoomkals and pujaris or priests to first take the jab themselves and then encourage the villagers to do the same. The district administrations are also approaching the peoples’ representatives to promote the vaccination drive.
The district administrations have also started awareness campaigns in local languages, including the tribal ones like Gondi and Madia spoken in eastern Vidarbha’s Maoist-affected Gadchiroli.
The healthcare teams are also visiting remote places like Beenagonda to get cluster of villages vaccinated in the Maoist hotbed of Abhujamadh along the Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border.
Singla said that a 21-point awareness campaign has been kicked-started to first target the hamlets where there is least resistance. The campaign will then move on to villages that are completely refusing vaccination. “We are roping in local doctors who provide the first line of treatment to the villagers. Once these local doctors are vaccinated, they can motovate the villagers,” said Singla.
He said help will also be taken of opinion makers like tribal activist Devaji Tofa and well-known faces to boost vaccination.
Gadchiroli’s district health officer Dr Shashikant Shambarkar said his team first vaccinated the pujari at a small hamlet in Chamorshi taluka and another at Dhanora. The villagers followed them. “If someone like a bhoomkal asks the villagers to take vaccine, they follow him without questioning. Social media rumours have created mistrust among the tribals who may need the protection of vaccine more than people in urban centres,” said Dr Shambarkar.
Thakare, who feels the anticipated third wave may hit the villagers more than urban population, is keen to intensify the vaccination drive in rural parts, especially in the tribal belt of Nagpur district. “We want to capitalize on the trust the local population has in hakims and others who use herbs and so on for treatment,” he said.
Vaccination and awareness campaigns have kicked off in 13 talukas in tribal parts of Nagpur district.