Project Rahat

As the nation is setting a record of reaching the highest vaccination in a day, there are still more vulnerable communities struggling for a day's meal, and not much aware about the vaccination drive, they have a lot of myths and misconceptions about the vaccine. It is found that the most of these issues come from the rural areas of the country. The present condition and past experience clearly say that Rural India is still not fully prepared for the third wave and the challenges are even more so for the rural districts with marginalised backward and tribal populations. 

Maldunge Gram Panchayat is located in Raigad district of Maharashtra, It is at the backward side of famous tourist spot Matheran Hills, the majority of the population belongs to tribal communities, there is no proper availability of Healthcare Infrastructure. Most of the people belong to daily wage workers, construction workers, laborers and don't have any fixed income. It is found that the literacy rate is also very poor as there are no proper schools located in the village, the nearest government school is Waje High School which is almost 10K.M. away from here, the children have to travel a long distance to attend schools. As the pandemic hits, the major population of the village loses their jobs and has to face very difficulties to get a one time meal for their families. Nowadays there are still 750 families who are not able to afford proper meals for their families. Children have lost their education, due to lack of health resources there are no proper vaccinations available for the population in the area.

These 750 families of the area belong to tribal communities, and rely on the daily wages for their livelihood. Most of them were used to work on brick fields, as a labour, mason workers on construction sites. Still their working sites are not resumed as a result they are still struggling to provide one time meal for themselves. 

It was also found that the very few of the villagers are vaccinated and that too they are educated, but the uneducated population of the villages haven't taken a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine yet nor they are willing to take as they are more into myth and misconception that the vaccination would may contract fever and death, or lead to sterility, Some  locals  believe  that  since  vaccines  have  been  administered,  fever,  COVID like symptoms and death rates have recorded a spike in the villages, Suspicions that the COVID 19 vaccine is a ploy by the government to kill people/control population. There  were  a  lot  of  misconceptions  about  the  vaccine  initially  including  that  they infertility , cause miscarriage or affect a woman's periods. COVID-19 vaccines may cause autism in offspring.

TEAS has proposed a plan of action in providing relief to these 750 Vulnerable families in support with a month of grocery kits and also to enroll them for the vaccination by setting up the registration desk as the time of distribution of ration kits to them. Also TEAS has prepared the following plan of action to enroll the maximum rural population of tribals for the vaccination to avoid 3rd wave in India (Rural India).

• Conducting mass Awareness on COVID-19, importance of vaccines.
• Strengthening Primary Health care centres to help the local fight from the third wave. 
• Vaccination Drives in Rural areas and semi-urban areas of Raigad District (Maharashtra).
• Street Plays may attract people emotionally and help in educating.
• Reaching  through  government  channels,  health  departments  (ASHA  and  Angawadi Workers).

• Grocery kits to support 750 vulnerable families of the village for a month.
• Fully Vaccination to 6500 population living in gram panchayat Maldunge.
• Less chances of getting hitted by 3rd wave of COVID-19.