Incentives driving attitude change towards jabs in India

Sitting on a charpoy - a traditional woven bed - at home, Mr Dheen Mohammad grudgingly acknowledges that he got vaccinated last week.

The 65-year-old farmer, who lives in Chendeni village in Nuh, one of the country's most backward districts in the northern state of Haryana, was surrounded by a group of vaccinators and local officials.

Early last month, the district was singled out as among 50 in India with the lowest vaccination rates. A federal meeting noted at the time that only 35 per cent of 164,000 people eligible for a jab had received one dose of a vaccine.

Mr Dheen Mohammad was among the vast majority who were fearful that vaccination would lead to infertility or even death.

But attitudes began to change as people saw their neighbours and other villagers getting vaccinated amid the promise of 1 million rupees (S$18,000) in infrastructure funds for fully vaccinated villages. There were rumours that state benefits, from pensions to subsidised food, would be suspended.

Vaccination centres outside ration shops disbursing subsidised rice and other grains also put pressure on those who came to pick up food.

"We were scared that I wouldn't get my pension because there was talk, and then everyone was getting vaccinated. Now whatever has to happen, will happen," Mr Dheen Mohammad told The Straits Times.

A daughter-in-law, who refused to come out of her room until the vaccinators were in the courtyard, remains the lone holdout among the six people in the family who were eligible for jabs.

The vaccinators, carrying a chiller box with vaccines, mostly do not press further when they come across diehards but vow to come back. They admit that it has been an uphill task in trying to dispel vaccine hesitancy.

Half of India's population are now fully vaccinated and Covid-19 cases remain stable. But the country still has quite a distance to go, including on booster shots and inoculating women as well as children, as it continues to tackle the issue of vaccine hesitancy.

In Nuh, it is being tackled through a mix of positive reinforcement, including through incentives provided by private businesses, and exhortations by religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim district.

"We had to try everything we had," said Captain Shakti Singh, divisional commissioner at Nuh.

Since last month, Nuh has doubled its vaccination rate and 61 per cent of the population have already received at least one dose.

Local businesses played a big part in the turnaround by offering discounts and freebies. Chemists offered a 10 per cent discount on medicines and petrol pump owners dangled half a rupee discount on a litre of petrol.

Over the past month and a half, Mr Sunil Bansal, owner of Sunil Motors, a motorbike showroom, has given away 300 helmets and dinner sets to vaccinated motorbike customers.

"I have customers walking in saying, we have got both our doses and now give us both things with the bike," said Mr Bansal, whose sales have held steady.

Across India, such incentives are being rolled out to woo vaccine holdouts. In Karur district in Tamil Nadu, the administration arranged a lucky draw in which a washing machine, wet grinder, mixer grinder, pressure cooker were prizes for those who received a shot. In Rajkot district in Gujarat, goldsmiths agreed to give gold nose pins to women.

"This is positive discrimination," said Captain Singh, who believed such incentives created a positive narrative around vaccines.

Half of India's population are now fully vaccinated and Covid-19 cases remain stable. But the country still has quite a distance to go, including on booster shots and inoculating women as well as children, as it continues to tackle the issue of vaccine hesitancy.

In Nuh, it is being tackled through a mix of positive reinforcement, including through incentives provided by private businesses, and exhortations by religious leaders in the predominantly Muslim district.