Vaccine hesitancy among Pourakarmikas worries MCC

• 40 percent of civic workers yet to receive jabs, thanks to misinformation 
• 13 buses offer free pick-up and drop service to Pourakarmikas in 9 Zones

Mysore/Mysuru: Vaccination drive against COVID-19 among frontline workers lags behind due to vaccine hesitancy. Frontline workers have borne the brunt of the pandemic even as cases are hurtling with breath-taking speed. But unlike during the first outbreak, we have vaccines — the home-grown Covaxin and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine Covishield. 

But even as vaccines become more widely available at least for the frontline workers, misinformation and lack of trust have led many to doubt the  vaccine’s safety. This has become a headache for the Mysuru City Corporation (MCC) as many Pourakarmikas are hesitant to get the jabs. 

Over 40 percent of them have not yet opted for vaccinations and this mistrust is a result of the fear that the vaccine has side-effects and can even result in death. 

There are over 2,600 Pourakarmikas in Mysuru city and over 600 of them in rural areas. Realising that many of them still are out of vaccination, officers have issued warnings that they will not be included in the works unless they get their jabs. 

However, this too has not had any effect on Pourakarmikas. This comes even as three MCC Pourakarmikas succumbing to COVID infection in the last one month. 

There could be even other reasons for vaccine hesitancy among Pourakarmikas. While more and more people are getting vaccinated and without developing any debilitating side-effects, the true reasons for hesitancy in this key group are unknown but are worrying officers.

These Pourakarmikas come in contact with people during their official duties, but have hesitated in taking the vaccine shot. Officials say that only 60 workers have been vaccinated. “During a recent vaccination drive, a few frontline workers hesitated to take the vaccine as they feared its side-effects. However, we managed to convince them to take the vaccine through counselling,” said MCC health officers. 

“We have appealed to all healthcare and frontline workers to get vaccinated. However, a few have chosen to stay away due to lack of awareness and fear of falling ill. As a result, the vaccination drive received a lukewarm response,” officials admitted. 

Meanwhile, former Krishnaraja MLA M.K. Somashekar has appealed to all Pourakarmikas to get vaccinated. Listening to their grievances at Vidyaranyapuram yesterday, Somashekar has said that it is important for them to get vaccinated as they come in contact with thousands of people every day in the line of duty. He opined that a special vaccination drive must be held and all the civic workers must compulsorily take the jab.

The ex-MLA was accompanied by Sujeev Seva Samsthe’s  Rajaram, Ward President Shankar, leader Gunashekar and others.

Buses for Pourakarmikas

In a novel initiative, the MCC has launched free pick-up and drop service to Pourakarmikas who come to the Central Business District for cleaning work and other essential tasks. Four buses have been hired by the MCC to ferry the workers from various parts of the city as there is no public transport facility due to lockdown. 

While the four buses have been hired from KSRTC, B.S. Prashanth of Safe Wheels has donated 9 tempo travellers for this purpose. These vehicles are also tasked with bringing Pourakarmikas to the RT-PCR testing venues at Chikkagadiyara for mass testing. The MCC has taken this action as many of the Pourakarmikas have either not taken vaccine at all or have just taken the first dose. 

These buses travel in all nine MCC Zones and Pourakarmikas are picked up from designated locations. After work too, they are picked up from fixed destinations and dropped back home.