OPINION

India's one-billion-vaccine milestone demonstrates the power of collective effort

Vaccination is an example of what can be achieved if citizens and government unite with a common goal in the spirit of the nation

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Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

India completed the administration of 1 billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine on October 21, 2021, just nine months after vaccination began. This has been a huge journey in dealing with covid-19, especially when we remember how things were at the beginning of 2020. Humanity faced such a pandemic after 100 years and nobody knew much about the virus. We remember how unpredictable the situation was then, because we were faced with an unknown and invisible enemy, which mutated quickly.

The journey from anxiety to reassurance has happened and India has become stronger, thanks to the world's largest vaccination drive. It was a true cross-sector effort. To get an idea of ​​the scale, assume that each vaccination took only two minutes for a healthcare worker. At this rate, it would take about 4,1 million human days or approximately 11.000 human-years of effort to reach this goal.

For any effort to achieve and maintain speed and scale, everyone's trust is key. One of the reasons for the success of the campaign was the trust people developed in the vaccine and the process that followed, despite various efforts to create distrust and panic.

There are among us who only trust foreign brands, even for simple daily necessities. However, when it comes to something as important as the covid-19 vaccine, the people of India have unanimously believed in "Made in India" vaccines. This is a significant paradigm shift.

Vaccination is an example of what India can achieve if citizens and government unite with a common goal in the spirit of nationhood. When India started its vaccination program, there were many people who doubted the abilities of 1,3 billion Indians. Some said it will take 3-4 years for India. Others said that people would not come forward for vaccination. There were those who said there would be crude, mismanagement and chaos in the vaccination process. Some have even said that India will not be able to manage supply chains. But just like the Janata curfew and subsequent closures, the people of India have shown how spectacular results can be if they are made into trusted partners.

When everyone takes responsibility, nothing is impossible. Our health workers crossed hills and rivers over difficult geographical areas to vaccinate people. Our youth, social workers, health workers, social and religious leaders are all responsible for the fact that India faces minimal indecision about vaccination compared to even developed countries.

There was a lot of pressure from various interest groups to give them preferential treatment in vaccination. But the government has ensured that, like our other plans, there is no VIP culture in the vaccination drive.

At the beginning of 2020, when covid-19 was ravaging the world, it was clear to us that this pandemic would eventually have to be fought with the help of vaccines. We started preparations early. We constituted expert groups and started preparing the road map as early as April 2020.

To date, only a few countries have developed their own vaccines. More than 180 countries depend on an extremely limited number of manufacturers, and dozens of nations are still waiting for vaccine deliveries, even as India has passed the record of 1 billion doses. Imagine the situation if India does not have its own vaccine. How would she provide enough vaccines for such a large population and how many years would it take? This is precisely where Indian scientists and entrepreneurs should be recognized for coming forward. Our vaccine manufacturers, scaling up to meet the needs of such a large population, have shown themselves to be second to none.

In a nation where governments have been known to impede forward movement, our government has instead been an accelerator and driver of progress. From day one, the government partnered with vaccine manufacturers and provided them with support in the form of institutional assistance, scientific research, funding, and expedited regulatory processes. All government departments have come together to facilitate vaccine manufacturers and remove any barriers as a result of our 'whole of government' approach.

In a country the size of India, it is not enough to just produce. The focus must be on last mile delivery and seamless logistics. To understand the challenges involved, imagine the journey a single vial of vaccine takes. From the company in Pune or Hyderabad, the bottle is sent to the hub in any of the municipalities, from where it is transported to the center of the district. From there it reaches the vaccination center. This includes thousands of journeys, flights and trains. Throughout this journey, the temperature must be maintained within a certain range that is centrally monitored. Over 100.000 pieces of cold chain equipment were used for this. The municipalities were informed in advance about the vaccine delivery schedule so that they could better plan their drives, and the vaccines arrived on the predetermined days. This was an unprecedented effort in the history of independent India.

All these efforts are complemented by a robust technical platform in CoWIN. This ensured that the vaccination drive was fair, stable, traceable and transparent. This ensured that there was no room for favoritism or queue jumping. It also ensured that a poor laborer can take the first dose in his village and the second dose of the same vaccine in the city where he works, after the required time interval. In addition to a real-time dashboard to increase transparency, QR code certificates ensured verifiability. There are almost no examples of such efforts not only in India, but also in the world.

In my 2015 Independence Day address, I said that our country is progressing because of “Team India” and this “Team India” is a big team of our 1,3 billion people. People's participation is the greatest strength of democracy. If we govern the country through the participation of 1,3 billion Indians, our country will progress 1,3 billion steps every moment. Our vaccination campaign once again demonstrated the power of this "Team India". India's success in vaccination showed the whole world what "democracy can achieve".

I am optimistic that the success achieved in the world's largest vaccination campaign will further encourage our youth, our innovators and all levels of government to set new benchmarks for the provision of public services, which will be a model not only for our country, but also for the world.

The author is the Prime Minister of India

The column was first published on October 22, 2021 under the title 'Made in India, Made by India'

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