PANJIM: Now, that India has approved COVID-19 vaccination for everyone, 45 years and older, the Centre and State governments are using innovative approaches to scale up advocacy to address the mixed challenge of vaccine eagerness and hesitancy among communities.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) issued a statement talking about how the States of Maharashtra and Goa have chosen to take the creative route to ensure the key messages are shared using popular art forms to find resonance among local communities.
The Ministry explained that cultural troupes have been deployed to perform street plays in local languages to get advocacy messages at 11,400 strategic locations across 36 districts of Maharashtra and two in Goa through the month of February to May 2021, in a unique outreach advocacy programme.
The collaborative campaign has deployed 89 empanelled performing troupes and 16 vans — 15 in Maharashtra and one in Goa States — equipped with LED panels and audio announcement systems for the dissemination of COVID-19 information in regional languages and local dialects.
The script reiterates updated information about the disease, COVID-19 appropriate behaviours, and COVID-19 vaccination to address concerns and counter infodemics that spread misinformation and fuel vaccine hesitancy.
This collaborative advocacy campaign is being run by the Regional Outreach Bureau (Maharashtra and Goa Region) under the I&B Ministry, in partnership with the Public Health Department of the Government of Maharashtra, WHO Country Office for India and UNICEF.
The WHO-National Public Health Surveillance Programme (NPSP) is reviewing the technical contents of script and supporting capacity building of cultural troops with relevant and updated information on the disease and the available vaccines.
The NPSP team is also assisting in the identification of key strategic places to halt vans for performances and LED display to maximise campaign impact and reach.
The Field Outreach Bureau in Panjim that comes under the I&B Ministry recently shared glimpse of the #JanJagrutiMahaAbhiyan campaign, of the time when the exhibition van visited the Urban Health Centre at Valpoi, Sattari to create awareness on the COVID-19 vaccination programme.
