Most habitants of the hinterland believe that COVID is restricted to the urban areas; they are immune to it owing to a healthy lifestyle
I went to my village in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh during Holi ( March 2021) and found that no one was wearing a mask or adopting prescribed Covid-appropriate norms. I was told that villagers had natural immunity due to their hard working lifestyle inthe fields, ahealthy environment and simple eating habits. They firmly believed that Covid was mainly restricted to the urban areas.Even the administration implicitly accepted thisand no efforts were made to educate or improve health infrastructure in rural areas.
However, the second wave of Covid has been devastating. Everyone is caught unawares. Even now the perception is that the villagers will be all right if they get infected because their life style will protect them. There is still resistance in rural India for getting vaccination which is now identified as one of the best ways for dealing with covid and as a long-term, sustainable solution.The challenges for addressing the pandemic in rural India needs a different approach.
Advocacy about following the prescribed norms , dealing with misconception ,and convincing for vaccination for all eligible person need to be factored in any approach designed for dealing with covid pandemic for Rural India . Utilisation of ASHA (Accredited social health activist ), Anganwari workers, Auxiliary Nursing Midwives, Self Help Groups and Panchayat functionaries are important for a sustained campaign to create awareness and influence villagers for vaccination. Local level 'Covid prevention champions' need to be designatedin every panchayatto motivate and educate the community. Vaccination camps in villageswill help in making access easy and affordable. Fully vaccinated Panchayats can be rewarded, same for districts too, to encourage competition.
The government can also utilise the Common Service Centres across the country for this rural initiative. There are CSCs in almost all the 2.54 lakh Panchayats in the country. The village-level entrepreneurs who operate the CSCs can help in registration of villagers for vaccination. They can also be effectivelocal level influencers as they are already involved in mobilising the community for various government schemes and programs. More than 70,000 CSCs are operated and managed by women and their credibility within the community is higher. Most CSCs are now extending banking services to rural population during the pandemic, speciallyfarmers who get the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi fund, Jan Dhan Account holders, Ujjwala beneficiaries and pensioners under various govt schemes. They even visit homes to extend the banking services for the old, infirm and sick. With such a large customer base and local influence. CSEs withan appropriate incentive can play a significant role in extending support to government for dealing with the Covid pandemic in rural areas.
CSC telemedicine service is also very popular in rural India. It helps connect a person to through video link with doctors of allopathy, ayurveda and homoeopathy medicine. Medicine too is dispensed online through the CSCs. Citizen consultation with doctors during the pandemic through CSC can benefit a large section of the rural population, particularly in cases of people with mild infection.
CSC has also provided mobile vans to 29 district-level Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) societies. They have computers and connectivity and are used for creating awareness, vaccine registration and teleconsultation. In some places with the support of the district administration, CSC vans are also being used for antigen tests. Surveys, testing and online data entry work can be effectively taken up as well. With the CSCs conductingthe seventh economic census digitally (more than 40 cr households surveyed),each village now has a trained person for whose services can be utilised for epidemiological studieson virus behaviour patterns at the local level. As these reports will be available online and instantly, any strange patterns can be immediately noticed and diagnosed.
The villagers can also use the CSC Grameen e-stores - the hyper local e-commerce platform was launched last year - to place orders for essential items online without having to go out to shop. The CSCs are in an advanced stage of enabling delivery of medicine to villagers and supportive roles in conducting diagnostic tests. Rural India is complex and has unique behaviour norms and, therefore, needs an innovative approach to deal with the Covid pandemic.
(The author is Managing Director, Common Service Centre (CSC) e- Governance. The views expressed are personal.)