Jharkhand's villages move towards a 100 pc vaccination target

Ranchi (Jharkhand) [India], June 13 (ANI): Several villages in Jharkhand are slowly moving towards 100 per cent Covid-19 vaccination, with a few already having achieved the ambitious target.
As per a statement from the Chief Minister's Office, all the people of the Banmara village located at the Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh border have been vaccinated with at least the first dose of the vaccine.
"Despite being one of the farthest villages, people here actively participated in the vaccination drive and achieved 100 per cent vaccination in the village. After a few awareness attempts by the administration people of these villages realized the importance of vaccination for the safety of their people," the statement said.
The Ranga panchayat of Masaliya block in Dumka is also heading towards the 100 per cent vaccination target. Shikaripara and Gandrakpur Panchayats, which are situated at the farthest part of the districts have achieved more than 80 per cent vaccination.
Garu, a Naxal-affected block in the Latehar district has administered close to 36,000 jabs. Nearly 50 per cent of the 18+ population of this block have received the vaccine jab.
The district administration is running intensive awareness campaigns across the block and a rise in vaccine coverage is being reported every day.
"Awareness campaigns run by the government in native and regional languages are helping people understand the benefits of the vaccine. Myths and fallacies related to the vaccine are being exposed among the rural population of the state," the statement said.
More than 70 per cent vaccination coverage has been recorded in the Dumka district of the Santhal Pargana region. Intensive awareness drives are being run across the district to encourage people and dispel hesitancy.
Apart from the efforts made by the administration to create awareness among the rural population, every week people would gather at different parts of the village. Everyone would share their inputs related to COVID safety behaviour and vaccination.
Other factors that have contributed towards this success include self-education, village-level meetings related to vaccines, and weekly social work for the upliftment of their village and their people.
"This created a similarity of thought among the villagers. Villages like Banmara, Jins Jara Kani and Ranga were motivated by the awareness drives run by the government, they accepted the importance of vaccination. They admitted that death due to Covid can create chaos among villagers. To avoid such mishappenings they voluntarily came ahead to take part in the Covid vaccination," the statement added. (ANI)