This story is a part of the TNM COVID-19 reporting project. To support this project, make a payment here.
Shyamala is in her forties, and is a domestic worker in Hyderabad. She lives in Begumpet’s Patigadda and has not taken the COVID-19 vaccine so far. “No one in our slum has taken the vaccine. We have no information about where it is available,” says Shyamala. Will she take it if it was easily available? “Of course, there is fear, but if everyone is taking it then we will also take it,” she says.
Like Shyamala, many poorer residents of Hyderabad are battling not a ‘hesitancy’, but a lack of assurance and awareness about the COVID-19 vaccines. They go by hearsay on vaccine availability and side-effects, and the process of getting vaccinated itself is an obstacle for people who cannot afford to lose a day’s wage in search of a unicorn they aren’t sure will help them. Although the Union government has now announced that the vaccines will be available for free for everyone, people who don’t have access to information and real-time updates on the changing policies of the government are left clueless.
Patigadda in Hyderabad’s Begumpet has a cluster of slums that house thousands of poor families. Most women in these colonies work in and around Begumpet as domestic workers. When TNM visited the narrow by lanes of these slums, most of the people we interacted with said they had not taken the COVID-19 vaccine — but not because they mistrust vaccines or have some deep-rooted anti vaccine beliefs. Most were unaware about the nearest PHC administering the vaccine, and many seemed unaware about the entire process of vaccination and its benefits.
A 75-year-old auto driver at the Pathergatti junction in the old city says he hasn’t taken the vaccine because he “heard it is unavailable and also expensive.” When we told him that it is freely available at the government Primary Health Care centres, he was surprised and then immediately shared the news with the other drivers at the auto stand.
This lack of awareness when added with misinformation is a potent mixture for an anti-vaccination narrative among some. Twenty-one-year-old Fehmeeda Begum, who works at an NGO, says she’s not planning to take the vaccine — nor is anyone she knows. “A person in my slum died a few days after he took the vaccine. They say his organs gave up because of the vaccine. Now we’ve all decided not to take it,” Fehmeeda says.
Her colleague, 25-year-old Arshiya Begum meanwhile did consider getting vaccinated at first. Arshiya has a 4-year-old daughter and resides in the old city. When she heard about the COVID-19 vaccination from her friends and colleagues at the NGO she works for, she went home and shared the idea of taking the vaccine with her parents. “My parents shut me down, saying it wasn’t something I should even think about because I have a young daughter. They told me none of us would be taking the vaccine.”
Arshiya and Fehmeeda are among dozens of other women at the Shaheen Women’s Resource and Welfare Association, an NGO committed to women’s rights and communal harmony. Speaking to TNM, Jameela Nishat, the founder and director of the NGO, says, “I have been offering to conduct a vaccination camp at the centre itself, but they have been reluctant. We had also brought a doctor to take an awareness session and motivate the women to get vaccinated, but they still remain unconvinced about taking the vaccine. In the entire centre, which has around 100 women, only two of us have taken the vaccine.”
Telangana’s Director of Public Health and Family Welfare says this is not the first time that people are showing a hesitancy to take a vaccine. Speaking to TNM, Dr G Srinivas Rao says, “As far as the old city is concerned, there has always been a hesitancy for any vaccine. There are many reasons behind this hesitancy. We are trying to educate them and we are also trying to get their leaders and public representatives on board. Eventually they will realise and they will definitely take the vaccine. It isn’t that they are not coming forward at all, they are coming, but may not be in very big numbers.”
Speaking to TNM, Hyderabad MP, Asaduddin Owaisi who has taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, says, “The hesitancy to get the vaccine is not limited to one area of the city. There are various reasons why people tend to hesitate taking the vaccine. People may be having their own doubts and COWIN is the biggest hurdle. Lockdown is also an issue. If you tell them to take the vaccine, the poor people will ask, ‘Will we be given food if we take the vaccine? Will my EMIs or my house rent be paid if I take the vaccine?’ Unfortunately for them the vaccine is not a priority, the priority for them is where to get the earnings from, how do we get food, how do we live.”
While some attribute religious beliefs for vaccine hesitancy, Owaisi says, “Many Islamic scholars have taken the vaccine. Islamic seminaries have started isolation centres, why would they have a hesitancy to the vaccine? It is just that vaccination is an issue, but not an issue for the poor people. They have bigger issues. When they’re told that they will die in the third wave if they don’t take the vaccine, they say, ‘Aren’t people dying now? Aren’t you aware?’ Unfortunately getting the vaccine should be their priority but it isn’t. But what they are saying is also right.”
The Hyderabad MP has been visiting places in the old city and he has been meeting the public and requesting them to go ahead and take the vaccine. Owaisi says he has been getting a lot of requests from people going abroad for jobs requesting for the vaccine.
“The main problem is that there is no vaccine. Second is that there is no financial activity happening. The third problem is hunger. There is hunger all around,” added Owaisi.
This story is a part of the TNM COVID-19 reporting project. To support this project, make a payment here.
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