Hyderabad: Gated communities hold vaccine drives for maids, helpers

Many colonies and gated communities in Hyderabad have arranged special vaccine drives for their domestic helpers and service providers

Hyderabad: There seems to be more focus building up on vaccinating maids, service providers, and domestic helpers in Hyderabad.

One particular gated community in Secunderabad has issued a circular saying that only 25 per cent of the maids and other domestic helpers working in the colony have not taken vaccination. It has urged residents to advise their helpers to get their families and themselves vaccinated. It also stated that they will not permit those helpers who haven’t got vaccinated to enter the colony from a certain date.

This is not the story of one particular colony or gated community in the city, but the story of many. While not all have put restrictions on the entry of non-vaccinated workers, all of them are doing their bit to vaccinate their helpers and create a safe environment for their community.

“Many colonies and gated communities in Hyderabad have arranged special vaccine drives for their domestic helpers and service providers. Our estimate says that over 60 per cent of these helpers have been vaccinated. And some of these colonies have put the onus of vaccination on the residents/owners as well,” said B T Srinivasan, general secretary, United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations Greater Hyderabad.

He, however, points out that there is vaccine hesitancy among a lot of these helpers as the level of awareness is low.

“We told our maid and even arranged for a vaccine in the PHC close to our colony. However, she claims that she has heard stories about how the vaccine can deteriorate your health and she was scared to take it. After a lot of counseling we were able to convince her to take the vaccine,” says Ashok Kumar, a resident.

Srinivasan also points out that not just the first dose of vaccine, many communities in the city are arranging vaccine drives to provide the second dose as well. “However, due to lack of availability of the second dose of a certain brand of vaccine, some gated communities are also redirecting their helpers to the nearest PHC as and when the due date arrives,” he informed.

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