TIRUCHY: Come rains at night, and it would mean a struggle for street dwellers to find shelter. With many of them unvaccinated and observing Covid-19 protocol hardly of concern, their camping in droves under a bridge or at a bus shelter or anywhere that shelters them from the rains has raised concerns about spread of the virus.
BN Natarajan, a resident of Thennur, said, “Nowadays, even residents are ignoring Covid safety measures. But many of them may have taken the vaccine.
Therefore, it may protect them from severe infection but that would not be the case with unvaccinated street dwellers. The spread of the virus among them may spoil the efforts of the district administration and the Corporation. Therefore, officials have to come up with some system to ensure their vaccination.”
Senior officials had in the past claimed of a special drive to vaccinate street dwellers. The difficulty in vaccinating those without any proof of identity, among others, however, is cited to have kept them away from the task.
“The lack of identity cards is not the major issue. It is just one of the issues and we can easily tackle it by issuing some temporary documents to the street dwellers. The major issue is to convince them to get vaccinated. Apart from that, we have to ensure that they would get fully inoculated. As many of the people hardly stay in one place, it would be a tough task to find them for the second jab. In fact, before conducting the vaccination, we may even have to conduct a health check-up on them,” a health officer said. With the administration having to tackle these issues, sources said that the concerned officials keep on ignoring vaccination for the street dwellers. However, it is unclear why it failed to ensure inoculation for at least those who are willing to take the jab.
“We would struggle a lot if we get infected. I also have the habit of consuming alcohol and tobacco products. So I have concerns about something happening to me when I take the jab. However, I would temporarily abstain from them to take the vaccine. But how should I get it when I don’t have an Aadhaar or other documents?” said Palani (50), a street dweller. He currently resides in Srirangam.
When asked, District Collector S Sivarasu said that the administration will conduct the vaccination for the street dwellers in the succeeding week.