This footage was filmed and produced 24 May 2021.

Nowadays people in rural India run away from the doctors as they don't want to be vaccinated. This mistrust is a result of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, as villagers feel the vaccine has side-effects and can even result in death. With the majority of India's 1.3 billion population still living in villages with little health infrastructure, the country is currently seeing the worst of the pandemic as the virus has reached rural India.

Interviews:

1) Gangaram Bhoye – Community Health Worker – Village Karsud – Rural Maharashtra
“ This is my village , Karsud and this Hamlet is called Khoripada which has a population of about 350 people; out of them only three people have received the vaccine. And all three of those are health workers – One is a village Asha Worker, the second one is me, the Male health worker and the third is a Anganwadi helper. There are about 20 people here above the age of 45 and no one is ready to get vaccinated. They recount the ill effects of the vaccines that they have heard from others, that so and so had this problem etc. So, they try to avoid getting vaccinated. In spite of all that, we're trying to convince them. We are putting in all efforts to vaccinate the entire village as soon as possible.”

2) Chaaya Mahale - Village Health worker - Village Karsud – Rural Maharashtra
“The villagers give reasons that some people has got side effects after taking the vaccine. They say they are scared. The don’t want to get vaccinated. We request them, but they don’t listen.”

3) Dr. Madhura Patil, Covid Care Centre in-charge - Village Shil - Rural Maharashtra
“If any of the relative dies for some reason in the villages they think that it is because that person must have taken the vaccine. Because of misinformation like this the villagers are not ready to take the vaccines. When we go to vaccinate them, they run away in the jungle, run to the hills. They are not ready to get vaccinated.”
“In this area, the villagers also have this myth that they will become impotent & will not be able to have children if they get a vaccine.”

4) Mahale - Village Committee member - Village Karsud – Rural Maharashtra
Reporter asks “ You are in the village committee right? So, if the health workers want to come here and vaccinate the villagers, can they come?
“They can come, but before that the villagers have to agree to that. If I alone say yes, then the villagers are likely to create a problem.”