Bihar: Priority vaccination, frontline worker status sought for street vendors

Over 90% of street vendors in Bihar, especially in rural areas, are left out of the Covid vaccination drive since they lack the resources or training to register online for receiving the vaccine, says the Bihar chapter of National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI).

An official of the association says a majority of these street vendors are neither technology savvy nor aware of the registration process and several others don’t have smartphones. Any person seeking to get vaccinated has to first register and get an appointment on the CoWIN web portal. The internet-enabled process has been held to be exclusionary for the disadvantaged social groups. Chhattisgarh high court recently asked the state governments to set up special help desks to ensure rural and poor people are able to register for Covid vaccine without internet, mobiles or computers.

Bihar has around 2.5 lakh registered street vendors according to an estimate by the vendors’ association. Around 25,000 of these street vendors are located in Patna, of which 18,000 have been identified by the NASVI.

“They have been the basic service providers... throughout the pandemic. But a majority of them have remained deprived of the vaccination facility,” Rakesh Tripathi, state coordinator of the NASVI, said.

The state government was requested last week to declare street vendors as frontline workers during the Covid pandemic, enabling special arrangement for their vaccination. “We have been told that our request has been forwarded to the department concerned,” Sangita Singh, the NASVI president said.

Dr Chandrashekhar, a senior physician said there was merit in the demand to vaccinate street vendors on priority. “During lockdown people are totally dependent upon them and are in regular touch with them. They should be vaccinated on priority basis to keep a vast population of the society free from the threats of infections,” he said.

Tripathi said special camps could be planned to vaccinate street vendors in colonies and communities with the help of vending committees of the municipal corporation.

Sanjeev Pandey, state coordinator of the National Urban Livelihood Mission, said there were 1.66 lakh identified street vendors with identity cards issued by NULM. “The NULM has hardly any say in this programme,”Pandey said and added, if any new guideline is issued in this connection, it will be followed.

Recently the state government told Patna high court that it had been allocated over 10.45 lakh doses of Covid vaccine for the age group of 45 years and above and these vaccines will arrive in the state between May 21 and June 1.

Maharashtra, Rajasthan,Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh account for 66.70 per cent of the cumulative doses given so far in the country, the Union health ministry had said a few days ago.