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Covid
Covid Vaccine
Vaccine Hesitancy
Hesitancy Survey
Survey
by
by
SBISBIYouth
YouthFor India
For IndiaFellows
Fellows
2020-2021
2020-2021
About Us
SBI Youth for India is a 13-month long rural development fellowship program, recognized
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a framework for India’s best young minds to join hands with rural communities, empathize
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The Program seeks to help India secure an equitable and sustainable growth path by:

- Providing educated and passionate urban Indian youth with an opportunity to touch
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- Promoting a forum for the program alumni to share ideas and contribute to rural devel-
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Partner NGOs:
Preview
The year 2020 brought the entire world to a standstill, where
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In 2021 the country went under lockdown yet again but this time we were a little
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SBI YOUTH FOR INDIA FELLOWS (BATCH 2020-2021)

Index
About Us
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Preview
Index

Section 1 (Page 1 - 5)

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Section 1

1.1 Introduction
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son infection and transmission are impeded by breaking the transmission chain and
integrating the social surroundings with the vaccinated and non-vaccination pop-
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minimum proportion of the population that needs to be vaccinated to deter per-
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succeeded in eradicating and reducing the spread of diseases such as measles,
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iour of viruses but one can prevent the emergence of variants by preventing trans-
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plagued, during its implementation phase, with non-interest or hesitancy in voluntary
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sections of society, who have access to the vaccine but are unwilling to immunize
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In light of this importance and urgency, it is highly pertinent to focus efforts in the
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aggregated data, such as those carried out in this study, identify particular groups or
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Page No. 01
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
Section 1
1.2 Background
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the British when they rolled out inoculation for plague and cholera over 120 years
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The prevalence of vaccine hesitancy can be attributed to an interaction of multiple

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containment at the community level, but the slow pace of implementation is due to
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lished by the government should be used to help communities prioritize their health
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The involvement of civil society organisations in this exercise, for instance, must not
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as age is reduced, it may be important to look into a 2-pronged approach towards
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Page No. 02
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
1.3 Objectives
The purpose of this report is to assimilate
and assess the delivery mechanism of the
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to identify and contrast successful prac-
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in their approach to convince and vac-
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verse nation with almost three-quarters of
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exercise, a landscape analysis of various
socio-economic, cultural and
psychological indicators was performed to
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Awareness Programmes and addressing
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to understand and analyse beliefs and atti-
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The study further takes note of the
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Page No. 03
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 1.4 General Approach
and Methodologies
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knowledge, Inclusion, Individual and mass behaviour of the surveyed
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country-wide surveys conducted by the State Bank of India Youth for In-
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from various rural settings of 12 States were interviewed using the survey
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The Participating States in Alphabetical order are Assam, Bi-

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data can be used to provide comprehensive
insights into the socio-economic and cultural
diversity that prevails in the country and how
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questions and motive of the survey re-
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Page No. 04
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
962 surveys were conducted in
14 states of India.
rural parts of 15
Hesitancy

In 2021 the country went under lockdown yet again but this time we were a little
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Page No. 05
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
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ׂ‫(ׁخ‬Ƶ˛ȁǞtion of Vaccine
Hesitancy
In India, vaccine hesitancy is nearly as old
as the introduction of the mass vaccina-
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itancy was noted during the third plague
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driving them away from the vaccines,
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decades, various factors have led to hesi-
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tutions, misinformation regarding its side ef-
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vaccines contains a microchip, which the state would subsequently use it as a s
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As mentioned above, the factors vary across time, place and even for the vac-
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study, asks if the respondents believe the vaccine manufacturers are inter-
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cies of mistreatment of marginalized communities further fuels this mistrust’
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Page No. 06
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.2 Vaccine vs !Ȍȁ˛ƮƵȁƧƵ
Hesitancy in System
“The most important ingredient in all vaccines is trust, without trust a vaccine
doesn’t do much good in the world.µB%DUU\%ORRP-RDQ/DQG-XOLXV+-DFRE-
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A deciding factor for communities’ trust in vaccines is the inter-relation between
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include anxiety about unnatural substances in the body, vaccines as govern-
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This section analyses the communities’ beliefs in vaccines, vaccine pro-
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Page No. 07
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.2.1 Belief in vaccines, vaccine
producers and effectiveness
To identify the mistrust in the vaccine or its effectiveness, surveys were undertak-
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“Punjab and
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vaccines are effective against
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geographical location did not
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no formal education did not
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who do not believe in ef-
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Figure-1 Do you believe vaccines are safe for you?

Page No. 08
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 Figure-2 Do you believe the vaccine
producers are interested in your
health and will provide safe and
effective vaccines?

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Page No. 09
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 7KH VXUYH\ UHYHDOV WKDW 
of the respondents got
discouraged from getting immu-
nised due to their past experi-
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discouragement due to past
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hensive categorization of the
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aged by the news of people or
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Figure-4 Do you believe that there are (better) ways to prevent COVID-19 other than vaccination?

Although the survey shows a higher trend towards belief in the vaccination
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immunity boosting medicine, good sleep and exercise can effectively help combat
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Page No. 10
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.2.2 Belief in healthcare services and
related institutions

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Figure-5 Do you trust your health care worker to safely

administer the vaccine to you?

Page No. 11
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
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Figure-6 Did your healthcare professional ever treat you without respect?

Figure-7 What do you think was the reason behind this treatment?

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with respect by the healthcare workers- Punjab and Assam being the states with the
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Page No. 12
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.2.3 GEOGRAPHICAL
BARRIERS
A key factor towards hesitancy is the geographical terrain of certain rural areas in
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facility has been stated as one of the most important deciding factors for attitude
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DFWLYLWLHVVRZKHQWKHZDYHVWULNHVUXUDO,QGLDWKHLPSDFWLVELJJHU

Transportation was considered as the one of the

greatest inventions but the same played an im-
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of the people surveyed believe vaccines to be
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factors that have prevented the rural communities
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far and wide to incidents of discrimination in the
past at the behest of healthcare workers, dis-trust
in medical professionals and pharmaceutical
companies compels belief in alternate measures
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The analysis thus points to a larger gap, and is not
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key factors contributing to the vaccine hesitancy
are the mis-guidance or mis-communication and
rumours through the various communication chan-
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Page No. 13
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 2.3 Models of Vaccine
Hesitancy
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supply increases, the problems like distribution, management, registration process
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RIWKHGRPLQDQWFKDOOHQJHVDVLWUHTXLUHVFUXVDGLQJWKHFRPPXQLW\DWJURXQGOHYHO
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program is facing a lot of challenges due to lack of information, mismanagement and
SRRUVXSSO\DORQJZLWKKHVLWDQF\DPRQJSHRSOHDWGLIIHUHQWVWDJHVRIWKHSURJUDP

The above data from our survey reveals that the

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are not vaccinated mainly due to lack of slots
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Page No. 14
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
àƵɩƊȁɈɈǘƵȯƵȌȯǶƵǞȁXȁƮǞƊɈȌDzȁȌɩɈǘƊɈɈǘƵɯƊȲƵ
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2.3.1 Factors contributing towards vaccine
hesitancy

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to several factors such as fear of infection, lack of awareness, pregnancy and other
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WLQJYDFFLQDWHG7KHRWKHUPLQRUUHDVRQVLQFOXGHGRFWRU·VDGYLFHIRUQRWWDNLQJ
vaccines, fear of side effects, misconception and lack of money for travelling to
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-3 out of 10 fear death as a result of taking vaccine
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-7 out of 10 persons who have expressed hesitancy towards the vaccine have
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Page No. 15
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.3.2 First step to getting vaccinated

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Page No. 16
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.3.3 Digital access and
registration
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have registered themselves for vaccination and remaining people are unable to
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walk-in access to vaccines is more preferred as mobile usage is not well prevalent
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Page No. 17
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.3.4 Vaccine
delivery
The people in the rural community need to
provide authentic and exact information
about the availability of slots, effects after
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other hand, some community members’ re-
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still they seem to be reluctant in taking the
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The most preferred mode of
vaccine delivery that people
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reason behind this choice is the
ease of access and cost and
time saved in travel specially for
people in the rural areas most-
ly involved in Agricultural and
daily work as is prevalent in the
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ple expressed ease and cost as
the reason behind door-to- door
vaccination and this percentage
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1DGX ZKLOH WKHUH DUH DOVR FHU-
tain outliers in terms of choice
of vaccine delivery in states of
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where people preferred to re-
ceive a vaccine at healthcare
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the states it is clear that the peo-
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that comprises the major youth
group has faced maximum is-
sues due to vaccine shortage
while the elder population has
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is a lack of vaccine, people are
promptly going back to get the
dose after getting disappoint-
ed which shows that hesitan-
cy is less in the older generation
while due to wastage of time
and money maybe the young-
er generation is more reluctant
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Page No. 18
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
“A woman’sǘƵƊǶɈǘǞȺǘƵȲcapital‫ٳى‬- Harriet Beecher Stowe
2.4 Vaccine Hesitancy and Communication

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Page No. 19
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
2.4.1 Role of ASHA and Healthcare Workers

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support vaccination programs, while the least number of responses recorded
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males tend to show hesitancy towards vaccination due to advice from anti-vacci-
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the age groups of the respondents following the instruction of the anti-vaccination
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formal education group said to take the advice of those who advocated against
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The following pie chart shows the trust of community members in the healthcare pro-
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in the country - Punjab and Assam being the states with the highest percentage of
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Page No. 20
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
ASHA Santosh Rawat distributing medicine kit.

Trust on Healthcare professional for Healthcare advised that vaccine are nt neccessary
Vaccine Administration and have too many side effects

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healthcare workers in
India advised community members against
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workers advising against vaccination is in Punjab,
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Page No. 21
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
Section 3

3.1 Conclusions
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can be scraped off, especially in the rural framework where societies are built with the
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face of this resistance, fueled by other factors like accessibility, lack of proper communi-
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In our study we tried to identify if there is a hesitancy- somewhere between a yes and a
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IHDURIGHDWK

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cultural bias, past experiences which further seeds doubt in the minds of those who be-
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The report has shared inferences of all such issues, big and small, which may have con-
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ing for a while and has contributed in one way or other to spread information about the
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Page No. 22
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
3.2 Way Forward
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which varies across time, space, beliefs and vaccines, with a myriad of potential
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Immunization programs need to monitor their populations to detect areas where the vac-
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Although we are moving towards digitisation, rural India lacks gadgets and
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The vaccine is one such phenomenon hence awareness is and stopping the
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Page No. 23
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 Credits
Data Team Members
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Sujay Sundar
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Ashwini Arulrajan
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Upasana Saikia
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“It was a fun learning experience for the whole team that revealed the team spirit amongst all
of us and gave us a platform to interact, express, explore our own potentials with freedom which
developed bonding and support among two different cohorts virtually.”

Background Research Team Members

Neethi Saravan Seshadri
Ravi Kumar Meena
Geetika Tyagi
Stuti Mankodi
Archana Singh
Srinivas Ethiraj
Nupur Poharkar
Shweta Azad
Rasiga Selvaganesan
Ann Elizabeth
Ann Maria Sabu
Vishwat Giri
Mamta Rani
Shubham Mahadik
Ankita Pritamani
Anas K.P
Dipankar Das
Tasnim Jahan
Sakshee Jaimini

“Working on the vaccination hesitancy survey was a real eye opener. It helped us understand the
mindset of the rural folk in context to the pandemic and the vaccinations related to it.
While working on the historical background, we understood the hesitancy seen today has
prevailed since time immemorial.”

Page No. 24
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 Credits
Copyright Team Members
Arunima Sarkar
Manisha Kumari
Nikhitha Jagadeesh
Susmit
Nayantara Joseph
Arsh
Moksh Naidu
Matthew Jetto
Reshwin Noel Washington
Ajay Jhawar
Vishvak Kannan
Rajsi Sawant
Danish Seth
Ritika
Paoni Patidar
Swastika Goel
Sonia
Manjary
Avanthika
Surabhi

“The experience gave us an insight into documentation and presentation of project. It also helped
the fellows in understanding the different problems faced in vaccination process.”

Design Team Members

Anukriti Bisht
Pratishtha Pandey
Bhagyashree
Shraddha
Sumana Palle
Shreya Kothwale
Muskan Thakral
Tanvi Sharna
Kriti Karishma Bisoi
Shushila Murmu
Mahima Joshi
Swati Singh
Paraardha Goel

““We as the SBI Foundation’s Youth for India Fellows ‘20-’21 wanted to do our part in understand-
ing how the current COVID-19 crisis can be addressed on a grassroots level by researching vac-
cine hesitancy in rural areas, which contain the most vulnerable people. Working as a team to
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sincerely hope it can be used to further public health & safety..”

Page No. 25
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
 Bibliography
Citation links
9DFFLQHKHVLWDQF\YV&RQÀGHQFH
How a village in India reached 100% vaccination in the face of misinformation and hesitancy
How health workers are combating Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in rural Maharashtra
9DFFLQH+HVLWDQF\DVD&KDOOHQJHRU9DFFLQH&RQÀGHQFHDVDQ2SSRUWXQLW\IRU&KLOGKRRG,PPXQLVD-
tion in India
Vaccination coverage and vaccine hesitancy among vulnerable population of India
The legality of mandatory vaccination
https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/covid-19-plugging-rural-indias-healthcare-gaps-calls-for-a-
multi-pronged-strategy-3746471.html
https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/pii/S2666535220300082?token=19F3D36B829A1621689B49E-
6F681AB6685572722B9DEC143A4B1E887BA8A3613A183F23C5DDFC9FD001C2999E6C11DA3&originRe-
gion=eu-west-1&originCreation=20210623195716
or
.XPDU$QDQWHWDO´&29,'&KDOOHQJHVDQGLWVFRQVHTXHQFHVIRUUXUDOKHDOWKFDUHLQ,QGLDµ (OVHYL-
HU3XEOLF+HDOWKLQ3UDFWLFH :HE-XQH
https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/articles/how-do-i-earn-what-do-i-eat/
https://www.livemint.com/news/india/is-india-s-rural-health-infrastructure-up-to-the-
task-11585843148985.html
https://data.gov.in/keywords/phc
https://ruralindiaonline.org/en/library/resource/rural-health-statistics-2018-19/
https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/for-millions-of-migrant-workers-covid-19-
brought-caste-discrimination-back-120082100542_1.html
https://vikaspedia.in/health/health-directory/rural-health-care-system-in-india
https://www.mohfw.gov.in/covid_vaccination/vaccination/dist/images/documents/Covid19Commu-
nicationStrategy2020.pdf

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2*&KDSWHUSGI

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Page No. 26
Covid Vaccine hesitancy report YFI(2020-2021)
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