M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Jan 10: Latehar administration is all set to find and vaccinate 15+ children who work as domestic help but have not taken the Covid-19 vaccination.
A family in Latehar said his domestic help has no Aadhar card and this is the major problem that is not able to go for his vaccination. However, the family is ready to give its cell phone number for his vaccination.
Domestic help is often presented outside as distant relative to hide the grim truth of engaging child labour.
Children over the age of 15 years can be found in garage, tea stalls, hotels and around the railway and bus stations. Vaccination teams can locate and identify them by their physique.
Rag pickers like plastic and polythene bag pickers, coal pickers of 15+ age can also be tapped for vaccination. These are the ones whose chances of missing out the vaccination are high.
DC Latehar Abu Imran said, “We are committed to vaccinate all such children who are not enrolled in the schools and are either in the streets or by the side of the railways.”
“We will vaccinate all the eligible 15+ no matter where they are,” he added.
A doctor M Kumar said the best time to vaccinate such children who live by themselves is the evening as they prefer night to be spent in the shanty structures.
“It is the moral responsibility of the people to get them vaccinated for whom such children work,” the doctor added.
Regarding children having no Aadhar card, one official in Ranchi health department said that there are other ways to register them but under no circumstances any 15+ child should remain unvaccinated.
Latehar has done 54 percent of the 15+ vaccinations till January 9 against the target of 52,000 plus given as projected population by the state government.
Ved Prakash, a health official of Latehar, said: “We have 30,000 enrolled 15+ students in our 101 schools, out of which we have vaccinated 28,433.”
Sources said the state government has given 52,000 plus projected population of 15+ children in Latehar but it is believed the real population of 15+ children is 43,250.
If this target of 43,250 is taken into account, then 28,433 vaccinations of 15+ puts the vaccination percentage of 15+ vaccinations in Latehar at 66.
Meanwhile, precautionary doses have begun in Latehar and DC Abu Imran has also taken the vaccine to encourage others.
