TENKASI: Freebie culture is not new to Tamil Nadu. In fact, once the election season falls upon the State, it is a common scene here. But this time, a municipality, in coordination with a non-government trust, is trying to beef up vaccination by throwing gifts.
Result? An increased participation in the COVID vaccination drive.
Due to lack of people receiving vaccination against COVID-19 in Sankarankovil region, health officials from the municipality approached the Sarathi Ram Trust, headed by PGP Ramanathan (61), a cotton saree manufacturer and the vice president of the Powerloom Owners Association.
The Trust, in the past, had been involved in volunteering activities, including blood donation camps, distributing kabasura kudineer, and also conducting vaccination camps. While the municipality officials had set a target of inoculating at least 42,000 people in the region, they were able to administer the jab to only about 16,000 people until Friday. That is when the Trust stepped in.
"We announced that the first 100 women and men to get vaccinated at the camp will be given a cotton saree and a hot box each. We also offered them 10 more prizes, to be selected by a lucky draw. It included a 33-inch television set, a refrigerator, a washing machine, gas stoves, mixers, grinders, and iron boxes," Ramanathan said.
And it worked. The queues at the camp got longer every minute since 8 am, an hour before vaccination began on Saturday. At the end of the day, almost 750 people had turned up. The lucky draw, as announced, was held at 4 pm and the winners took away the prizes.
'Freebies not long-term solution'
Municipality Sanitary Officer Balachandar was concerned about the low turnout till Friday. "We have conducted awareness programmes repeatedly in the region asking people to get inoculated. However, hardly 200 of them, or sometimes fewer than that, came to the camp. We approached the Sarathi Ram Trust as they have been involved in similar activities in the past as well. But, we didn’t expect them to offer prizes at such a large scale."
While this cannot be a longterm solution to draw people to vaccination camps, the officer said the announcement surely encouraged them. Hoping this would create an awareness, health officials expect a steady flow into the camps.