The absence of mobile phones in some rural households is proving to be a hurdle in the vaccination drive against Covid-19 virus in Jharkhand as sharing a mobile number along with Aadhaar details is mandatory for getting the Covishield jabs, beneficiaries who had to return from vaccination centres without getting the jab due to the lack of mobile number have said.
Karma Kumar, a senior citizen from a village in Idalhatu could not get vaccinated on Friday as he did not have a mobile phone. The staff at the CCL Hospital in Gandhinagar asked him to share the mobile number of either a family member or a neighbour in order to get the first dose of the vaccine, but he could not manage to find any person willing to provide their mobile number on behalf of Karma.
“I don’t have a mobile number, but they (staff at the vaccination centre) are saying that sharing a mobile number is mandatory for getting the vaccine shot. I will see if I can find someone who can share his mobile number for my vaccination registration,” he said.
When inquired, the staff at the vaccination centre said that a mobile number was a must for vaccination as all details related to the vaccination and the next date of vaccination are shared via SMS. “If they do not share a valid mobile number, then they will not get updates via SMS and won’t get to know when to get the second dose of vaccine,” said one of the staff, adding that the certificate of vaccination is also can be downloaded only if the registered mobile number is entered and the person logs in with the One Time Password (OTP) sent via SMS to the registered number.
As per 2011 Census, only 34.9 per cent households in rural Jharkhand and 73.7 per cent households in urban areas have mobile phones. While the number of mobile phone owners may have increased in the past 10 years, there is no latest data on mobile phone penetration in rural and urban areas of Jharkhand, sources said.
As per rules set by the Centre for vaccination, only four beneficiaries can be registered for vaccination through one mobile number. While on an average, every household has more than four members in the state, many Jharkhand residents have provided the same mobile number in their Aadhaar details, sources said.
Jharkhand has so far administered the first dose of the vaccine to over 4.18 lakh beneficiaries and around 80,000 of them were senior citizens. As per government data, the state has also administered the first dose of the vaccine to around 12,000 middle-agers with comorbid conditions.