Hazaribag: Bocho, a village in the Sadar block of Hazaribag district, has remained free of Covid-19 since the outbreak started in Jharkhand on March 31 last year.
The villagers said they got the inspiration to strive hard and keep the virus out of their locality after listening to the appeal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Maan Ki Baat’ over the radio to follow the safety protocols.
Over the course of the next 15 months, Jharkhand and the entire country faced two deadly waves of the pandemic.
However, the village, with its 30,000 inhabitants did not report a single Covid-19 case.
Located on the foothills of Bamanway about eight kilometres from here, the hamlet is now setting an example in vaccination with most of its eligible population having taken their jabs so far.
“Not only did Bocho not report a single Covid-19 infection through the entire pandemic, nearly all of its adult population has taken their vaccines,” Sadar block development officer Amitabh Bhagat told TOI.
At a time when vaccine hesitancy is very high among Jharkhand’s rural population, Bocho’s success story serves as an inspiration.
“Everyone in our hamlet observed social distancing and hand hygiene protocols diligently.
Youngsters of the hamlet initiated door-to-door campaigns to create awareness in every household about Covid-19 guidelines and their importance,” Nidhi Kumari, a national-level basketball player who represented Jharkhand in the sub-junior national championships in Punjab last year said.
Shankar Prasad, a farmer, said: “No officer or any one from the district administration set a foot in our village to create awareness.
The locals did it themselves.” Dr Sanjay Jaiswal, the civil surgeon of Hazaribag, said: “As per our records, nearly 80% of all the eligible beneficiaries in Bocho village have got themselves vaccinated.
Health camps and vaccination camps have always been well received by Bocho’s people and our health workers received cooperation from the people.” Notably, the locals of Bocho had resorted to agitation almost a decade ago to stop illegal stone quarrying at the foothills of Bamanway and were successful in repelling the illegal stone mafias from the area.