‘Har Ghar Dastak..har ghar tika, ghar ghar tika': PM Modi announces door-to-door vaccination

Addressing a Covid vaccine review meeting shortly after his return from the Glasgow COP26 summit, Modi said religious leaders and youth organisations like National Cadet Corps and National Service Scheme should also be roped in to boost the campaign.

"Till now all of you have made arrangements for taking the people to vaccination centers. Now vaccines should be taken to every door, there should be a door-to-door vaccine," he said in the virtual meeting with the Chief Ministers and officials of states where the vaccine coverage is less than 50 percent.

The Prime Minister interacted with District Magistrates of over 40 districts in Jharkhand, Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and other states with districts having low vaccination coverage.

"Under the free vaccine campaign, we have administered about 2.5 crore vaccine doses in a day. It shows our capacity," he said.

During the interaction, the Prime Minister discussed the issue of vaccine hesitancy and the local factors behind it in detail and discussed a wide array of ideas that can be implemented for ensuring 100% vaccination coverage in these districts.

He spoke about maximising community engagement through religious and community leaders.

He exhorted all officials to ensure that the country widens its vaccination coverage by the end of the year and enter the new year with renewed self-belief and confidence.

“One special thing in the country's fight against Corona was that we found new solutions and tried innovative methods,” the Prime Minister said, encouraging the administration to find new to break the barriers.

He asked the officials to develop micro strategies, keeping in mind the experience so far to go for saturation of vaccination by addressing the gaps at local level.

The Prime Minister asked the district officials to make different strategies for each village, each town in the districts if need be by making a team of 20-25 people depending on the region, encouraging healthy competition in the teams, that you have formed, and preparing region-wise timetables for local goals.

To address rumours and misunderstandings about vaccination, he asked the state officials to take help from the religious leaders and urged for a special emphasis on taking their message on vaccine to the people.

The Prime Minister asked the officials to change gears from arrangements made for taking people to the vaccination center and for safe vaccination to administering vaccines from door to door.

He urged the health workers to reach every house with passion ‘har ghar tika, ghar ghar tika’ - Vaccine at every doorstep. He also asked to go in the spirit of ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ knocking on every doorstep to ensure full vaccination.

“Now we are preparing to take the vaccination campaign to each household. With the mantra of  ‘Har Ghar Dastak’, knock on every door, every household lacking the security net of a double dose of vaccine will be approached” he said.

"Because whenever the cases of the infection start decreasing, sometimes the feeling of urgency decreases. The urgency in administering the vaccines comes down among the people," he said.

“You will have to contact those people who have not taken the second dose despite the stipulated time on a priority basis...ignoring this has created problems for many countries in the world”  he alerted.

According to government figures, around three-quarters of adults in the country of 1.3 billion people have had one shot and 30 percent are fully vaccinated.