A people-centered approach to policy leads MP’s mega-vaccination campaign to wins

@the_news_21

By Mohammad Suleman

The Government of India announced the third phase of Vaccination Campaign against the COVID-19 virus, beginning May 1, for the largest section of our population (age group 18-44). For the citizenry, it was a much-awaited moment, but for the administration, the depth and breadth of our preparedness were now to be tested. Madhya Pradesh (MP) ha sa thick forest cover (over 1000 forest villages), a dense rural population (over 70%) and tribal demography (over 20%) with many small and scattered hamlets; these conditions continue to pose a challenge to our supply chain and service delivery. For cosmopolitan cities with largely urban populations, hesitancy may not have been a bottleneck, but for a state like MP, with a large rural population, misinformation was a hill we had to climb. However, when we look at the country’s vaccination charts, Madhya Pradesh continues to establish itself among the best performing states.

Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan recognized vaccination as the sole armour to prevent the third wave and end the pandemic. He set a vision that the state must inoculate the entire population with both doses by December 2021. To achieve the goal set by the Hon’ble CM, the state has been making concerted efforts relentlessly. A mass vaccination campaign in the form of COVID 19 Vaccination MahaAbhiyaan was launched on 21^st June 2021. We topped the vaccination charts in India by administering more than 17 lakh doses on the first day itself. To accelerate the fight against the pandemic, second round of the MahaAbhiyaan was organized in August. Once again, on August 25^th, Day One of the campaign, we achieved our highest single dose inoculation in a day – over 24 Lakh. The campaign gained momentum and we began to routinely register over 1 million doses a day. By the third Mahaabhiyaan in September, our vaccine administration figures were close to 29 lakhs doses (on 17^th September). As a result, the first dose coverage of Madhya Pradesh has swiftly reached 88% which is highest among large states.

Recordsand numbers by themselves are incomplete parameters to gauge progress.It is historically evident that the only way to successfully implement a mass campaign is by locating it at the centre of the public sphere. When we began framing the policy and planning for the COVID-19 Vaccination Campaignin Madhya Pradesh, we were convinced that the only way to make the campaign a success was to locate it in a model of civil society participation, or Jan Bhagidari. The success of Madhya Pradesh’s feat is not only due to the commitment of our health workers and administrators, but to the public’s imminent participation as well.

To make the campaign far-reaching, we set up a state team comprising of all the multifarious departments. Our Hon’ble CM constituted a group of ministers to oversee a holistic implementation of the campaign and guide the administration at every stage. The Crisis Management Groups, comprising of members from government and non-government organisations, to provide support during the COVID-19 pandemic are leveraged at the district, block, and village level. The group brings members from Panchayati Raj, BLOs, school teachersand youth volunteers together for seamless campaign planning and management. Wefocus on microplanning, continuous supervision and monitoring, and most importantly community mobilization. A chief aspect of our preparedness is devising precise vaccine allocation plan for every district based on consumption capacity, performance, and stock availability.

More than 10,000 vaccination sites have been established across all districts and equipped with necessary infrastructure. Vaccine Storage Transportation, and Distribution (STD) capacity has been augmented. Vaccine vans in all districts run day-in-day-out to ensure uninterrupted supply chain (State-to-Division-to-District-to-Block-and further).1378 mobile vaccination units operate ceaselessly despite rains and adverse conditions.

Till the last mile, we ensure that categories of beneficiaries without an Identity Card such as prisoners, nomads, beggars are not left out. Special sites have been created for their benefit, and data is unfailingly maintained. Special emphasis is given on the full vaccination of school and college teachers, Self Help Groups, and Frontline Workers to ensure their complete safety. We are also proud to uphold a coverage of 3 lakh vaccinated (first dose) pregnant women beneficiaries, the highest number in the country. The post-vaccination follow-up routines for these beneficiaries is being actively pursued for 28 days through the Surakshit Matritva Ashwasan (SUMAN) Help Desk.

Throughout the Campaign, our Hon’ble CM has been indomitable in his commitment to actualise his vision of vaccinating the State by 2021.He implored all state Padma awardees, authors, journalists, teachers, religious leaders, and public intellectuals to motivate their followers to join campaign, get vaccinated and to spread positive messaging on vaccination

It has, by now, been firmly established that complete vaccination is more effective in protecting against severe disease and new variants. To ensure full vaccination,an innovative gamification technique was deployed to mobilize more people for second dose via over 1 Lakh COVID-19 volunteers and 32,000 Saathiya(Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram) members. Volunteers carried door-to-door campaigns to bring people to vaccination sites, especially in the tribal areas and inaccessible terrain. From bottom up: health workers and community volunteers charted out detailed mobilization plans. Khatla Baithaks (community meetings) were organized across tribal blocks to invite, inform, and involve households in remote locations.

A reward mechanism was initiated to recognise the outstanding efforts of both rural and urban local bodies in achieving 100% vaccination (first dose) of their population. The state also introduced a stamp-based concept wherein people were stamped with a single black tick as a visual cue for partial vaccination, and double blue ticks in the case of complete vaccination.

It makes all our endeavours even more rewarding to see public participation in all its vibrancy pouring in on social media in the form of their got vaccinated pictures. All our mass media initiatives such as rally on wheels, slogan writing,nukkadnatak, radio, and television continue to be expanded and received well.

Throughout this whole campaign,Control Rooms at the state, district and block level have been constantly monitoring achievement of target on an hourly basis, and any issues faced by vaccination teams are dealt with on a real-time basis through video conferences and tele-calling units. The persistent support of our development partners namely WHO, UNICEF, UNDP, CHAI,JSI, NIPI, Rotary IMA, IAP, FOGSI and other NGOsaids the reinforcement of the drive.

The pandemic will end, the pandemic has to end, but it will end sooner if we set forth united efforts against the pandemic. Vaccination is our only weapon to end the pandemic and save lives. Our plan is to build on the momentum gathered during the MahaAbhiyaansand achieve the target of full vaccination of the eligible population by the end of this year by following the Jan Bhagidari model.

(Writer – A.C.S., Department of Health and family welfare, Goverment of Madhya Pradesh )