Karnataka village puts up stiff resistance to Covid vaccination

Chamarajanagar: Gopinatham, a small village in Charamarajanagar district, bordering Tamil Nadu, came to limelight when forest brigand Veerappan, a native of the village, unleashed a reign of terror killing forest and police officials during the 1990s. This village is again in news for entirely different reasons. The Covid-19 vaccination programme of State government has proved to be a complete failure here.

Gopinatham gram panchayat has a population of 5,137 people, consisting of Tamil speaking farmers and labourers. The villagers are shying away from taking the vaccination against the deadly virus after some mischief makers spread a false propaganda that the persons who took the jab would die. Most of the villagers are fans of of Tamil actors. Recently, popular Tamil comedy actor Vivek died of cardiac arrest. This news spread was twisted in such a way as to prompt the villagers to believe that he died after taking Covid vaccination.

The response to the Karnataka government's vaccination programme is so lukewarm that only 11 people got the jab so far. Among those have not been vaccinated are gram panchayat (GP) president Shivagami and 10 members. When health officials organized a community vaccination camp on April 30 at MM Hills PHC (Primary Health Centre), none turned up. GP development officer Kiran, ASHA workers, forest staff are visiting door-to-door educating the villagers about the need for getting vaccinated. In a strange twist, the villagers are said to be demanding a written guarantee that no harm would befall them after vaccination. In some instances, villagers refused to undergo RT-PCR test fearing that they would be admitted to Covid care centers. One of the residents of Gopinatham succumbed to the virus while 64 have been infected so far. For the past fortnight Covid positive cases have been increasing in Gopinatham and other nearby villages like Pudur, Hogenakal, Alambadi and Koteyur.