Hero to zero: Dharavi beat two Covid-19 waves, but response to vaccination has been lukewarm

Though Dharavi beat two Covid19 waves quite effectively the response to vaccination in the area has been lukewarm ever since it started on March 1 this year Only 20504 doses have been administered since then Hence in order to boost the vaccination drive the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC has started a doortodoor campaign to register people for itA beneficiary gets vaccinated at the Chota Sion centre in Dharavi in April File picConsidering the population of the area and the fear of the pandemic we thought there would be massive crowding at vaccination centres In fact initially there was a bit of crowding but only for a few daysrdquo said a BMC official requesting anonymity ldquoDharavi has three vaccination centres each of which gets 100 doses daily but the turnout is not that encouragingrdquo he addedConsidering the lukewarm response BMC officials started a number of initiatives in the area in April and May Announcements related to vaccinations were made free bus rides to centres were given and gift hampers were distributed too But even these did not help boost the numbersAlso Read Itrsquos rinse and repeat for BMC Municipal corporation turns its attention to slums againThough each centre gets 100 doses daily in the first seven days of June only 866 doses were administered at the three centres The Chota Sion UHC gave 406 doses Transit Camp centre gave 248 and SWC centre gave 212 Speaking about the response Kiran Dighavkar assistant commissioner of GNorth ward said ldquoTurnout is low Even with the current low supply of vaccines we donrsquot see all the doses allotted for a particular day getting utilisedrdquoldquoThere is vaccine hesitancy in the people of the area As a local NGO we reach out to people and urge them to get vaccinated but many simply refuse to do it There is a general misconception that even if vaccines are taken there is a possibility of death in fact many believe that vaccines can lead to deathrdquo said Siddharth Medhe president of Dharavi Nagrik Seva Samiti ldquoWe try to sensitise people in our area but we have certain limitations We need a bigger campaign to encourage people to get vaccinatedrdquo he addedSpeaking to midday corporator of ward number 184 Babbu Khan said ldquoThere is no doubt that the vaccination process is slow in Dharavi There are some misconceptions about it Many believe that there are no vaccine doses but in reality the doses being provided are not getting utilisedrdquoKiran Dighavkar assistant commissioner of GNorth ward said ldquoSlow pace of vaccination in Dharavi is a cause of concern In April we tried different ways to encourage people which gave us good results but now again the response is poor We have started a doortodoor campaign which we hope pushes citizens to get vaccinatedDharavi resident Sanjeev Hinduja said ldquoThere are so many vaccines and a lot of confusion over them I donrsquot want to take it I am fine without itrdquo Another local Nasir Sheikh said ldquoI am physically fit and have not contracted Covid19 so far I donrsquot want to get vaccinatedrdquoDharavi in second spotGNorth ward has Dharavi Dadar and Mahim within its jurisdiction Dharavi stands second in terms of vaccination figures in the ward Since March 1 three vaccination centres in Mahim have given 40681 doses while Dharavi administered 20504 doses Dadar stands last with just 13355 doses Dharavi has 20 active cases with a recovery rate of 9446 per cent Since the beginning of the pandemic the area reported a total of 6844 cases of which 6464 recovered and 359 died of the viral diseaseJabs given in Dharavi as of June 7gtgt Urban Health Centre Chota Sion active since March 22 ndash 17556gtgt Transit Camp Centre active since May 7 ndash 1839gtgt SWC active since May 12 ndash 110920504No of doses administered in Dharavi since March 1TwoDharavirsquos standing on jabs compared to Dadar Mahim in GNorth ward