Along with the downward trend of the daily positive cases of Covid 19 in the country, the vaccination drive is in full swing. Where districts, cities and states are breaking milestones during this vaccination drive, a remote village in Jammu and Kashmir has achieved a feat which no other village in India could. None other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself lauded the efforts made by the district administration of Bandipore and the medical staff for achieving 100 percent vaccination in Weyan village.
Weyan village, situated 86 km from Srinagar and 28 km from the district headquarters of Bandipore, is mostly cut off due to the hilly terrain and scattered houses in the area. On top of that, with non-availability of internet access in the area, the awareness level among the people is also quite low. Despite all these barriers, however, the district administration of Bandipore, headed by IAS officer Mr. Owais Ahmed, achieved this feat earlier this month and is now setting an example in front of the whole country as the ‘J&K Model’.
A TREK TO REACH THE VILLAGE
It takes around 28 km to reach Weyan village from Bandipore district headquarters, in which the first 10 km can be traveled by road and the rest 18 km on foot. While speaking with Indian Masterminds, Deputy Commissioner Bandipore Owais Ahmed, said “Weyan village, which falls on the way to Gurez valley, is located on a high-altitude hilly area with a less and dispersed population scattered all around the place. As there are no proper roads and one has to trek some distance to reach the village, special teams were set up for each hamlet to conduct the vaccination drive. These teams were first given training as it required more than just vaccinating the people.”
“Initially we tried to cover people who are above 45 years of age as it was being said that they are more vulnerable to the disease. After this, people from 18-45 years of age were vaccinated. So, the task started from first reaching the hamlet in which the medical teams along with paramedics trekked all the way. This process took around three rounds in which a mop-up was done in the third round to check whether everyone is vaccinated or not,’ he added.
The vaccination drive in this village was more important as almost half of the population in the village is partly from the nomadic community; they consist of shepherds who migrate to higher reaches for few months in the year to feed their animals. Mr. Ahmed said, “As they mostly migrate during the onset of summer, we tapped this village beforehand and made sure these people get vaccinated before migrating. This group mostly includes the young people.”
ERASING MISCONCEPTIONS OVER VACCINE USE
As Weyan has issues related to internet connectivity, correct information takes time to reach this remote village and therefore people get trapped in the fake rumours which spread like wildfire. Mr. Ahmed said, “This was one of the challenges we faced here in Bandipore. To solve this issue, we gave time to the people of the district to think about it rather than forcing them to get vaccinated. As the drive started with the frontline workers and people from the administration getting vaccinated, we strongly started propagating our Information Education Communication (IEC) activities. As every day these people received reassuring information, it created a huge impact in their mind.”
“Apart from this, we have seen some resistance in far-flung areas of the district but the vaccination team played a very important role in convincing the people till they were mentally prepared to get vaccinated. Not only the vaccination team but the Panchs, Sarpanchs, and the revenue teams also tried convincing them. Once the vaccination drive was at its peak in the district, we started getting demands from other areas to provide vaccination to them as well,” he added.
The second wave of Covid 19 was pretty scary for many areas in the country. However, Bandipore district administration managed to control the spread by increasing their testing rate, opening a 100 bedded oxygen generation plant in the main district hospital and by keeping a close tab on people’s movement, Covid 19 protocols and related SOPs. The district administration has already completed 95 percent vaccination to all the people above 45 years of age and is in the process of covering everyone above 18 years.
Just like Weyan, 27 more villages in Bandipore will hopefully be fully vaccinated quite soon.
