Har Ghar Dastak 2.0 | Gist of Rajya Sabha TV / RSTV (now Sansad TV) - UPSC PDF Download

Introduction

Har Ghar Dastak Campaign – the second leg of which commenced across the country to ensure complete Covid-19 vaccination of all eligible beneficiaries. The two-month long door-to-door campaign will run from 1st June to 31st July. The first Har Ghar Dastak campaign was conducted in November last year. So far, more than 193 crore doses have been administered across the country.

Har Ghar Dastak

• The Centre had launched  a mega vaccination campaign- ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ with a view to speed up Covid -19 vaccination drive.
• Under the campaign, healthcare workers in all the States visited door-to-door to vaccinate people eligible for second dose and also those who have not taken the first dose.

Vaccine Hesitancy

• WHO defines Vaccine hesitancy as a delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite the availability of vaccination service. Vaccine hesitancy has been reported in more than 90% of countries in the world.
• Globally nearly 4, 24,000 children have confirmed measles in 2019, as against a figure of 1, 73,000 in the whole of 2018.
• In India, poor communities of Uttar Pradesh were reported to have taken five times low uptake of oral polio vaccine in the early 2000s.

Reasons for Vaccine Hesitancy

• Religious propaganda that the vaccine may contain microbes, chemicals and animal-derived products which is forbidden by religious laws.
• Social media is used in stirring fear in people by falsely blaming vaccines for unrelated diseases is the bedrock of the Vaccine hesitancy all across the globe.
• For example, recently some sections in India are refraining from the polio vaccine. This is due to the misconception that the polio vaccine caused illness, infertility and was ineffective.
• Vaccine-derived diseases: Oral Polio Vaccines (OPV) contains weakened but live poliovirus. This virus from the vaccine is excreted by immunized children which can move from one person to another.
• This allows the virus to stick around and mutate to a more virulent form, raising the threat of vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV).
• Inconvenience in accessing vaccines is also the leading cause of Vaccine hesitancy.

Campaign 2.0

• Har Ghar Dastak campaign 2.0” to accelerate the pace and coverage of COVID19 vaccination across States and UTs has commenced across the country.
• Being implemented in a ‘Mission Mode’, States and UTs have been advised to give an intensive push towards full COVID19 vaccination coverage by vaccinating all eligible beneficiaries.
• This was communicated to all States and UTs. Union Health Secretary as he reviewed the status of COVID vaccination with Health Secretaries and NHM MDs of States and UTs last week.
• Incorporating the experience & learning from “Har Ghar Dastak campaign” launched in Nov 2021, ‘Har Ghar Dastak 2.0’ will be implemented from 1st June 2022 to 31st July 2022.
• The objective of the ‘Har GharDastak2.0’ Abhiyan is to vaccinate and cover the eligible population groups for first, second and precaution doses through door-to-door campaigns.
• Major focus will also remain on improving sub-optimal coverage of persons aged ≥ 60years with precaution dose, along with considerably slower speed of coverage in the 12-14 years cohort by focussed campaigns for old age homes, schools/colleges including the out-of-school children (for focussed coverage of children aged 12-18 years population), prisons, brick kilns, etc. States/UTs have been urged to undertake effective monitoring with respective micro-plans based on due-lists of all eligible beneficiaries.
• They were also urged to review administration of precaution dose to 18-59 years age-group with the private hospitals on a regular basis.
• The national COVID-19 vaccination drive has witnessed unparalleled achievement due to the detailed planning and robust efforts by the Government of India.
• So far, 193.57 Cr doses have been administered across the country. 96.3% of all persons above 15 years of age have received at least one dose and 86.3% have received both the doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
• The ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ Teekakaran Abhiyaan has been inspired by the successful strategy of Mission Indradhanush which included mobilization, awareness & vaccination activities for reaching out to all the missed out and dropped out eligible beneficiaries of 1st & 2nd dose through House-to-House visit from 3rd Nov 2021 onwards.
• The initiative contributed immensely towards the success of the programme by reaching out to the last mile beneficiaries including the old-aged, differently-abled and even the vaccine hesitant populations.