TAKING VACCINES TO MELGHAT

Context: Lessons in messaging from a tribal region in rural Maharashtra.

Challenges faced in pursuing effective vaccination: While using Information, Education, Communication (IEC) is considered as one of the most bandied-about terms in administration, certain hurdles exist - 

• Too much information: There is too much information today. Social media has pitted us against an infodemic.
• Stereotypes and biases: Just information is of no use unless it gets translated into knowledge and then action. However, this action is compromised due to the presence of stereotypes characterising tribals.
  • For e.g. such as “the tribal population doesn’t understand because they believe in superstition”.
  • If we approach any culture, thinking it to be an unnatural extension of society, it is unfair to expect that any goodwill happen.

Case study of Melghat in handling vaccine hesitancy and conducting successful vaccination: Vaccination in Melghat, nestled within a forest, a core tiger reserve and home to the Korku tribals, offers rich insights into behaviour culture and the relationship between them.

• Language as the centrepiece: The priority was to have a mode of communication that belonged to the people.
  • This concluded in shooting episodes of a serial we called Corona haarativa, Melghat ji- tauva (Corona will lose, Melghat will win), which was broadcast on YouTube.
  • The tribal residents of Melghat acted in the serial; it was in their language, it had them asking questions and answering those questions.
• Understanding and tackling vaccine hesitancy: Sometimes what seems like vaccine hesitancy is just a matter of the wrong time or place. 
  • Villagers cannot sit at home all day long as most of them work for MGNREGA or in their fields.
  • The administration moved vaccination centres to open spaces in villages. That way, people could see others taking the vaccine,  and clapped for the first set of vaccinations and made sure the camp felt like a festival in the village, sometimes using music or our videos.
  • Enagaging people by offering them biscuits and water at the vaccination camps.
• Setting up intermittent goals: Based on completion of 100% vaccination in villages and keeping reward system, including public appreciation.
• Involving the leaders: Gram panchayat bodies were 100% vaccinated because people would listen only to leadership that practises what it preaches. 
• Building trusts: While IEC was being conducted in a village, one person asked the author, “Did you think of visiting and asking me how I was doing after the injection?” Ultimately, all people want is to be taken care of.