Lack of clarity making daily wagers miss out on vaccination

Suggest setting up vaccination camps near labour addas to facilitate easy access

Vaccine hesitancy remains a major obstacle in the country’s efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, but that is not the only reason a part of the State’s population is yet to be inoculated. Labourers and migrant workers are at the risk of being left out of the vaccination programme due to a lack of clarity regarding the drive, which calls for a targeted awareness strategy. D. Tirupathi, a daily wage earner, is among lakhs of people who are yet to undergo vaccination. The 32-year-old attributed it to the lack of information about vaccination timings at government health centres. “I have not taken the vaccine yet since we don’t have information about timings and the procedure. If I go to a health centre once and the staff there asks me to visit another day, I might go back two or three times. If I still don’t get the vaccine, I will be discouraged to pursue it,” Mr Tirupati told The Hindu during a conversation at the labour adda near Mahankali Temple in Secunderabad. Several daily wagers like him have not taken the jab yet. The reasons vary from person to person. There are some who fear losing out on work for two to three days owing to side-effects post immunisation.