Addressing the issue of Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural India

The majority of India’s population is living in rural areas which are ridden with poor healthcare infrastructure, lack of quality healthcare personnel and long distances to be travelled to avail healthcare services. The second wave of COVID-19 infection is now rife in rural India, spreading rapidly. In addition to this, misinformation, poor knowledge, fear of vaccination amongst the rural population is high, which adds to the challenge of treating and containing this virus.

Grassroot health workers are tasked with the challenge of educating the village population on the benefits of vaccination to help fight vaccination hesitancy. To support the health workers, Intelehealth is conducting a series of training to address this issue of vaccine hesitancy for NGOs .essential workers and health workers. Through these trainings, Intelehealth strives to provide authentic information and education in rural communities through grassroot health workers.

In addition to conducting vaccine hesitancy training, Intelehealth has also supported organizations in setting up helplines for the rural population to help in combating the virus. The helpline aims to address queries related to COVID-19, vaccination and general illness.

With this training, Intelehealth’s goal is to support grassroot NGOs across India like Child Rights & You, Habitat for Humanity, Sol’s Arc, Pratham, Mann, Sparsha Trust, Sankalp Parbhani, KMAGVS Latur, Shristi, Swarajya Mitra Wardha, Vidhayak Bharti, HALWA, etc. These NGOs in turn will disseminate authentic vaccine information to almost 1 million population in and around their communities.

Topics covered in the training :

• Pre-training participants knowledge assessment

• Advocating the need for Covid19 vaccination

• Pros and cons of the vaccination

• Side effects of the vaccine

• Time interval to be maintained between both the doses

• Features & the functionality of Covid-19 helpline

• Q&A

• Post-training participants knowledge assessment

Trainers:

Dr. Bimal Buch, Director, Clinical & Training Operations, Intelehealth , M.B.B.S., M.B.A. (H.M.), F.C.G.P., F.P. Consultant, D.H.R.D., P.G.D.H.R.M., P.G.C.H.M.,P.G.C.HIV/AIDS, Dip.T.D. Orange belt Six sigma (MSME), PGC QM & AHO (Postgraduate certificate in Quality management and accreditation of Hospital organization), Dip. C.M.H. (NIMHANS)

Dr. Kiran Acharya, BDS. Dr. Acharya has been privately practicing for more than 12 years. She has her own clinic in Thane and is a freelance writer and blogger. She has participated in Dettol-NDTV’s Banega Swacch India, a campaign aimed at habit change and attitude towards hand washing and hygiene, in rural Thane & Raigad districts.