RANCHI: At a time when vaccine hesitancy is rampant in many rural districts of Jharkhand, Congress’s Poreyahat MLA Pradeep Yadav is cycling to interior areas in his constituency regularly to motivate people to get inoculated against Covid.
On Tuesday, Yadav pedaled over 16km from Godda to different pockets to convince people to turn up at the two-day mega vaccination camp at Behra stadium in Poreyahat, which he initiated with the help of the local district administration.
Since mid-May, Yadav has been cycling across the length and breadth of his constituency at regular intervals to interact with villagers and ask them to turn up at the vaccination centres.
Based on his field assessments, he is also ideating special camps with the help of district administration.
Talking to TOI over phone from the vaccination camp on Tuesday, Yadav said, “Although the district administration is conducting their own awareness drives to convince people, as a public representative, it is also my responsibility to safeguard my people.
Vaccine is the only weapon to tackle Covid-19.
Wherever, I am going, I am holding pocket meetings and door-to-door campaigns on cycle to tell villagers not to miss vaccination.” Yadav has cycled over 150km in four installments since mid-May, touring different pockets of the constituency.
“My cycle campaign is not over.
I am focusing on areas that are highly remote or where the coverage is less.
At times, people tend to believe their local representatives more than others,” he said.
On the kind of misconceptions he came across during his visits, Yadav said, “Death, hospitalization and infection are the three main fears among villagers.
As a result, many in villages are refusing to take jabs.
There have been cases when people have died or got admitted to hospitals incurring heavy expenses even after taking the vaccine.
Their fears are natural.
However, I tell them that such cases are rare and could be owing to different reasons and not directly linked to the vaccine.
Things are improving.” Citing an example, Yadav said, “At Tuesday’s camp, which is exclusive for over half a dozen panchayats targeting 2,000 people, we have managed cover 1,000 people till noon.
Many came from far off places.
Word of mouth is working more.
When a person returns to his village after taking vaccine, others will follow suit next day after seeing that he is doing well.”