PM expresses hope that success achieved in world’s largest vaccination drive will further spur to set new benchmarks of public service delivery

• Integrity Education, Delhi
• 22, Oct 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed hope that the success achieved in the world’s largest vaccination drive will further spur our youth, our innovators and all levels of government to set new benchmarks of public service delivery, which will be a model not only for the country, but also for the world. In an article in a leading newspaper today, Mr Modi said, one of the reasons for the success of the campaign was the trust that people developed in the vaccine and the process followed, despite various efforts to create mistrust and panic. He said, for any effort to attain and sustain speed and scale, the trust of all stakeholders is crucial. He said, there are some among us who only trust foreign brands, even for simple everyday necessities.

Mr Modi said, however, when it came to something as crucial as the COVID-19 vaccine, the people of India unanimously trusted Made in India vaccines and it is a significant paradigm shift. He said, India completed the administration of 100 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine yesterday, in just about nine months since the start of the vaccination drive. The Prime Minister said, this has been a tremendous journey in dealing with COVID-19, especially when we recall how things stood in early 2020. He said, humanity was dealing with such a pandemic after 100 years and no one knew much about the virus. Mr Modi said, people remember how unpredictable the situation appeared then, as people faced with an unknown and invisible enemy mutating rapidly. He said, the journey from anxiety to assurance has happened and the nation has emerged stronger, thanks to the world’s largest vaccination drive.

The Prime Minister said, it has been a truly Bhagirath effort involving multiple sections of society. He said, to get a sense of the scale, assume that each vaccination took just two minutes for a health care worker. He said, at this rate, it took around 41 lakh man-days or approximately 11 thousand man-years of effort to reach this landmark.

Mr Modi said, the vaccine drive is an example of what India can achieve if the citizens and the government come together with a common goal in the spirit of Jan Bhagidari. He said, when India started its vaccination programme, there were many people who doubted the capabilities of 130 crore Indians. Some said, India would take three to four years and some others said people will not come forward to get vaccinated. There were those who said there will be gross mismanagement and chaos in the vaccination process. Some even said that India will not be able to manage supply chains. Mr Modi said, but just like the Janata Curfew and subsequent lockdowns, the people of India showed how spectacular the results can be, if they are made trusted partners. He said, when everyone takes ownership, nothing is impossible.

The Prime Minister said, our health care workers traversed hills and crossed rivers across difficult geographies to vaccinate people. He said, the youth, social workers, health care workers, social and religious leaders, all deserve credit for the fact that India faces minimal vaccine hesitancy when compared to even developed nations.

Mr Modi said, there was a lot of pressure from different interest groups to give preferential treatment to them in vaccination, but the government ensured that, like the other schemes, there is no VIP culture in the vaccination drive. He said, in early 2020, when COVID-19 was rampaging across the world, it was clear to the government that this pandemic will have to be eventually fought with the help of vaccines. The Prime Minister said, government started preparing early and it constituted expert groups and started preparing a roadmap right from April 2020. He said, till today, only a handful of countries have developed their own vaccines. Mr Modi said, more than 180 countries are dependent on an extremely limited pool of producers and dozens of nations are still waiting for the supply of vaccines, even as India has crossed 100 crore doses. The Prime Minister said, people can imagine the situation if India did not have its own vaccine. He asked how would have India secured enough vaccines for such a large population and how many years that would have taken.

The Prime Minister said, credit should be given to Indian scientists and entrepreneurs for rising to the occasion. He said, it is due to their talent and hard work that India is truly Aatmanirbhar when it comes to vaccines. Mr Modi said, Indian vaccine manufacturers, by scaling up to meet the demands of such a large population, have shown that they are second to none.

The Prime Minister said, in a nation where governments used to be known to impede forward movement, his government has instead been an accelerator and enabler of progress. He said, the government partnered with the vaccine makers right from day one and gave them support in the form of institutional assistance, scientific research, funding, as well as accelerated regulatory processes. Mr Modi said, all the Ministries came together to facilitate the vaccine makers and remove any bottlenecks as a result of the whole of government approach. He said, in a country of the scale of India, it is not enough to just produce. The Prime Minister said, the focus has to be on last-mile delivery and seamless logistics. He said, to understand the challenges involved, people can imagine the journey taken by one vial of the vaccine. From a plant in Pune or Hyderabad, the vial is sent to a hub in any of the states, from where it is transported to the district hub. From there, it reaches a vaccination centre. Mr Modi said, this entails thousands of trips taken by flights and trains. He said, during this entire journey, the temperature has to be maintained in a particular range that is centrally monitored. The Prime Minister said, for this, over one lakh cold-chain equipment were utilised. He said, states were given advance notice of the delivery schedule of the vaccines so that they could plan their drives better and vaccines reached them on the pre-decided days. Mr Modi said, this has been an unprecedented effort in the history of independent India. He said, all these efforts were complemented by a robust tech platform in CoWIN. It ensured that the vaccine drive was equitable, scalable, trackable, and transparent.  

The Prime Minister said, it ensured that there was no scope for favouritism or jumping the queue. He said, it also ensured that a poor worker could 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. Mr Modi said, in addition to a real-time dashboard to boost transparency, the QR-coded certificates ensured verifiability. He said, there are hardly any examples of such efforts not only in India but also the world.

The Prime Minister said, in his Independence Day address in 2015, he had said that the country is moving ahead because of Team India and this Team India is a big team of 130 crore people. He said, people’s participation is the biggest strength of democracy. Mr Modi said, if we run the country through the participation of 130 crore Indians, the country will move ahead 130 crore steps every moment. He said, the vaccination drive has yet again shown the power of this Team India. The Prime Minister said, India’s success in its vaccination drive has also demonstrated to the whole world that democracy can deliver.

Sources : News On Air