Jaipur, July 15, 2020
Hundreds of persons from rural areas of Rajasthan were benefitted from the massive fortnight long awareness campaign launched by the state’s leading consumer organization -CUTS International, as part of its Covid 19 response activities which concluded today.
Incidentally, in a reversal of trend, as a result of arrival of migrant workers to home villages etc., rural areas in Rajasthan now have more Covid-19 patients than urban in almost half of the state’s districts. In some districts, more than 90% of the positive cases are in the rural areas and Jaipur district itself has recorded more than 100 positive cases from its rural parts.
The districts which are having the highest percentage of rural population tested positive for Covid 19 are: Dungarpur (98%), Jaisalmer (97%), Jalore (96.6%), Rajsamand (88.3%), Banswara (87%), Barmer (85.8%, Dausa 61.9 and Bhilwara (50.89), more people are tested positive for Covid-19. In Jaipur too, 73 persons are still undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in the rural area, while 175 are in urban areas. CUTS covered most of these worst affected districts as its target.
Starting with an urban crisis, COVID 19 now it has taken rural areas too by storm, according to health department. Hence CUTS International launched the campaign in rural areas.
In addition to educating the target population through various means, sanitizing kits consisting of materials such as masks, sanitizers, soaps etc. were also distributed. The Hindustan Unilever Ltd had contributed 5000 soaps free of cost, which was distributed to the participants of these awareness events. Experts from Health Departments in respective districts had interaction with the villagers keeping social distance in mind. ‘In the context of increasing cases of Covid-19, the purpose of the campaign was to educate people residing in villages, hamlets, mainly the rural population about good hygienic practices, physical distance maintaining habits, providing tips for safe food practices and other basic health tips. The public were apprised of the need to remain alert, follow all health protocols and save them from getting infected”, said George Cheriyan, Director, CUTS International.
“People are not taking this pandemic seriously, especially in the rural areas. People are moving around without wearing masks, crowd is gathering in marriages and other functions, proving conducive environment for the virus to spread. Therefore, we have to make the people more and more aware about the measures to prevent this virus spread, so that they can save themselves, their families and the community from this pandemic, George further said.
The state level launch of the activities was held in Chittorgarh and events were held in various districts. Various dignitaries such as Mr. Ankit Kumar Singh, District Collector, Bansawara; Mr. Mukesh Kalal, Additional District Collector Chittorgarh; Mrs. Sarita Singh, Additional Superintendent of Police Chittorgarh; Mr. Sanjeev Sharma, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kota; Mr. Ratan Lal Regar, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Jodhpur; Mr. Sanket Modi, Deputy labour
Commissioner, Bhilwara; Dr. B. L. Jat, Scientist, KVK, Dausa released the IEC materials of the campaign in various functions, and attended various events along with Sarpanchs, representatives from the Gram Panchayats, representatives from the health Department, ANM and Asha Workers, community leaders, representatives of partner organizations and CUTS staff.
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For further information, please contact:
George Cheriyan,
Director,
CUTS International.
Mobile: 9829285930: E-mail: gc@cuts.org, dc@cuts.org