Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee is crafting an election-like strategy to kick off a door-to-door campaign in rural areas against vaccine hesitancy so that more and more rural residents can be convinced to take the jab.
The party, which is a part of the ruling alliance with JMM and RJD, has constituted a task force under the aegis of agriculture minister and Jarmundi MLA Badal Patralekh and is gearing up to launch the drive on or after Thursday, June 3, the day when the current phase of Covid restrictions is set to end, party workers announced on Tuesday.
As a first step, the Congress will run a social media campaign titled, "Speak up for vaccine" on Wednesday for creating awareness about the benefits of taking jabs to curb the rampant spread of the coronavirus. Senior party spokesperson Alok Dubey said, “Although the state administration is already trying hard to motivate people in rural areas to take the Covid-19 vaccine and adopt Covid appropriate behavior, there is widespread apprehension among villagers. As a political party which is in the government we have decided to press our resources to create awareness about vaccination.”
Teams have been formed in districts and blocks. “District level teams will be supervised by the respective district president and office- bearers. In each team, besides party workers, we are keeping local panchayat representatives, religious leaders and social workers for better communication and engagement with people,” he said.
As per state government data till Monday night, out of a target of 83.86 lakh, 34.92 lakh had got the first dose of the vaccine. Similarly, against a target of 37.31 lakh, just about 7.13 lakh have taken their second dose. Officials said that the biggest problem the state government was facing was in the vaccination of those above 45. There have been instances where health workers have faced stiff resistance from villagers in hamlets of Khunti, Mandar (Ranchi) and Gumla.