LUCKNOW: Located on the banks of Ghaghara river, Dhaukharia village in Barabanki has over 1,300 registered voters (adults) but only 200 turned up for Covid jab at a special camp organized by the administration last week.
Three weeks ago, Sisaunda village, just 2km away from Dhaukharia, made headlines when a group of villagers jumped into the river to avoid jab.
Similarly, many residents of Lisadigate in Meerut, locked their homes from outside to mislead health teams.
Vaccine hesitancy is not only confined to the rural masses as there are many cases where even frontline workers like doctors and policemen sought inoculation certificates without taking the jab.
“A government hospital surgeon contacted me four days ago.
He wanted a Covidshield vaccination certificate without taking a shot.
I declined his request.
Many policemen have contacted us for certificates without inoculation,” said Urmila Mishra, an anganwadi worker in Lucknow.
“Our teams face stiff resistance in rural areas.
People bring lathis to threaten us,” she added Brijesh Kumar Singh, former gram pradhan of Dhaukharia (Barabanki) said, “Vaccine hesitancy is seen among those who are illiterate.
We have inoculated ourselves to build confidence among local residents.” SDM Ramnagar (Barabanki) Rajiv Shukla said, “Initially, we faced difficulties in convincing people but with help of gram pradhans and local leaders we have formed committees to create awareness.
People have gradually starting showing up at vaccination centres.” Circle officer of Meerut Kotwali, Arvind Chaurasia, whose video of convincing a septuagenarian woman to take jab went viral on Thursday, said: “Vaccination cannot be forced.
Considering the sensitivity of the matter, we inform people about role models who have got inoculated, bust myths with the help of doctors and influential people.”