The police, patils, health workers have all tried and failed. The tribals of Nandurbar won’t take the vaccine. A teacher has accepted the challenge of traversing 180 villages to use script and song to change their minds
Nagsen Pendharkar and his volunteers visit every nook and cranny of the village, singing songs to the beat of the dhokak along the way, before settling near an area occupied by tribals to perform their 15-minute skit in Ahirani or Bhilori dialects
The tribal-dominated district of Nandurbar in north west Maharashtra has experienced a nightmarish few weeks. Though the region was lauded for optimum use of medical oxygen cylinders, thanks to a model adopted by district collector Dr Rajendra Bharud, its case fatality rate (CFR) to COVID-19 went up from 1.67 per cent in the last week of April to 7.74 per cent by May 23. The average in the rest of the state during this time was just 2.17 per cent.
While reluctance to test for the SARS CoV-2 virus was said to be one of the reasons for late detection of cases, Nagsen Pendharkar, a teacher at New English School in Umarde Khurde village, feels that vaccine hesitancy is just as critical a cause. Soon after the vaccination drive was opened to the entire adult population in March, many tribals developed cold feet. “There were a few stray incidents, where people had fallen ill after getting the shot. Villagers claimed that some had even died. While we don’t know if this really happened, tribals, out of fear, refused to register for vaccination,” recalls Pendharkar.
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The villages in the adivasi-dominated Nandurbar district in north west Maharashtra have seen 838 deaths due to COVID-19, as of June 3
With Nandurbar, like the rest of India, reeling under the second wave, the administration’s efforts to fight COVID-19 suffered a severe blow due to this rumour-mongering.
Pendharkar, who as president of the Rotary Club of Nandnagari Nandurbar had led several COVID-19 initiatives to support tribals over the last one year, realised that the issue was a sensitive one, and couldn’t be tackled with coercion alone. “We have to make an effort to convince them that vaccines are safe. But, it’s their choice to make at the end of the day.”
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A professional street theatre artiste, Pendharkar, 43, decided to travel the length and breadth of Nandurbar to spread awareness about the benefits of vaccination, and his choice of communication was song and drama. When he mooted the idea to the district collector, he got the green signal, provided Pendharkar took the responsibility to ensure that crowds didn’t throng these performances and social distancing protocol was followed.
Nagsen Pendharkar, street theatre artiste and teacher
Every day, Pendharkar and a handful of volunteers, dressed in jeans and tees, leave for a different village by road. Arriving by early evening at their destination, they first draw the attention of the locals by visiting every nook and cranny of the village, singing a few songs along the way, before settling near an area occupied by tribals to perform their 15-minute skit. “Most villages here are inhabited by both tribals and non-tribals. The problem is that while the non-tribals have been forthcoming in taking the vaccine when drives are organised, the tribals refuse to even step out of their homes. The local sarpanch and police patils have tried, but in vain,” says Pendharkar. These visits are timed just a few days before a vaccine camp is to be organised in the said village, so that locals make the most of the opportunity, when jabs are offered.
Pendharkar took a shine to street plays when he was pursuing a diploma in education from a college in Dhule. Since both his parents were teachers, he decided to follow in their footsteps. “After having witnessed street theatre in Dhule, I realised that it was a powerful medium to connect with people and speak to them directly.” While in college, he also led a group that performed street plays. When he returned to Nandurbar to join a degree college, Pendharkar, inspired by his father, who pursued several causes in his lifetime, decided to write plays that touched on literacy and AIDS awareness. The work has continued through his NGO, Gadge Baba Education and Cultural Group, first started by his father.
For the street performances, which he launched in the last week of May, Pendharkar created two groups—one that performs in Ahirani, a dialect that traces its roots to the Ahirs or cattle herders in the Khandesh region. The other is in Bhilori, spoken mostly by the Bhil tribe that inhabit the area. Pendharkar has split the groups, so that they can cover all the villages over the next few weeks. While one group has been assigned the remote hilly areas of Akkalkuva, Taloda and Dhadgaon that are not easily accessible by road, Pendharkar leads the artistes performing in Ahirani to villages near the city.
The volunteers have travelled to 50 villages across Nandurbar in the last two weeks
While the performance is not impromptu, it’s modified depending on the situation they find themselves in. “One of the artistes plays a local villager, who opens the skit. If we begin the performance early in the evening, the man questions the rest, ‘Kai naatak, naatak… Why have you come now? We are just getting ready for dinner.’ Or if it’s later in the night, he says, ‘We were just going to sleep.’ Then one of us pointedly tells him, ‘Don’t you know what’s happening in the world right now?” The play continues with the thread, as they go on to discuss COVID-19, the symptoms, the importance of wearing a mask, using hand sanitiser, before talking about vaccines. The performance is sprinkled with humour. Since Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor is a popular face among the locals, Pendharkar even makes a reference to her, while explaining the difference between “Corona and Kareena”. And there is accurate information to bust every myth related to the vaccine. “Lasikaran kara [get vaccinated]” is oft-repeated, so that villagers remember why the jab is the only way out of the pandemic. The performing troupe carries a dholak, naal and speaker, so that the message reaches far and wide. “While all the songs have been written by us, we’ve used local folk tunes, since they have great recall value,” says Pendharkar.
The volunteers have covered nearly 50 villages already, and hope to cover 130 more. An organisation in Pune, Tathapi Trust and the Rotary Club, are currently funding and supporting Pendharkar’s initiative. “Since we travel long distances daily, I have to pay for fuel and food, as most of our volunteers are college-going kids.”
Pendharkar says that it would be too soon to say, whether the tribal villagers have changed their minds. “But, from what I have heard from the local heads, a few reluctant villagers did go and get the jab after we performed before them. It might be a small number, but this will help convince the rest.” On June 3, Nandurbar, which has seen 838 deaths till date, had a total of 412 active cases. Pendharkar is confident that the tribal belt will soon be a model example for other districts in Maharashtra, when it comes to conquering vaccine hesitancy.
As far as the villagers in Nandurbar go, the anticipation of having a street theatre performance in their neighbourhood has trumped the anxiety that the pandemic has brought upon them. “We inform the locals at least a day in advance about our arrival. Last Sunday, when we reached Palashi, it was already 9 pm; unfortunately, there was no electricity in the village. But, everyone was already outside their homes, waiting for us. We couldn’t disappoint them, so we parked our cars on either side, turned on the headlights, and continued with our play. It’s moments like these that take artistes like us by surprise.”
7.74
Nandurbar’s Case Fatality Rate as of May 23 compared to the 2.17 per cent state average
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