: Meet the People Vaccinating Over 1 Lakh Sex Workers, Transgenders Vulnerable For Free #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus “If you look at the general population, only 30% has been fully vaccinated,�? begins

Meet the People Vaccinating Over 1 Lakh Sex Workers, Transgenders Vulnerable For Free #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus
“If you look at the general population, only 30% has been fully vaccinated,�? begins Shiv Kumar, a man who has taken on the task of vaccinating those on the peripheries of society against the deadly coronavirus.
“Communities like these are behind formal society on so many metrics, but at least on this initiative we were very keen to put them in the front of the line,�? he says.
The social entrepreneur with 27 years of experience in incubating and mentoring social organisations is a part of CovidActionCollab (CAC), a virtual body of 339 members consisting of people from civil society, private organisations, academic institutions and quasi-government associations.
Leading the charge of the CAC’s vaccination drive for WSWs, transgenders and their families are the Catalyst Group and Swasti Health Catalyst, a Bengaluru-based non-profit with Chief Impact Officer G Kallana Gowda.
They came together in March 2020, have as of 20 November 2021 vaccinated nearly 1. 24 lakh women sex workers (WSW), transgenders and their families, across 5 states and 30 locations.
Of 1. 24 lakh vaccinated under its VaxNow initiative, which began only in August 2021, approximately 62% are WSWs, 2% transgenders and 36% are their family members, they claim.
But of the 1. 24 lakh, around 51% have received one dose, while 49% have received both doses. These vaccination camps are happening across 5 states including Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and 30 locations. In the city of Bengaluru itself, 11 camps were organised and a total of 3,346 WSWs were vaccinated. At the helm of the CAC is the Catalyst Group, a social enterprise platform, with co-founder Shiv Kumar as chief integrator.
“Our rate of vaccination outreach to WSWs ranks higher thanks to the mobilisation work Kallana and his team have done. In addition to WSWs and transgenders, we have also helped vaccinate factory, domestic and sanitation workers, small farmers, urban slum dwellers and daily wage earners as well. Including the 1. 23 lakh WSWs, transgenders and their families, we have helped vaccinate nearly 9 million people from poor and marginalised backgrounds,�? claims Shiv.
CACs initiative to vaccinate the most vulnerable is bearing fruit. (Image courtesy CAC)
To Vaccinate The Marginalised
With their livelihoods completely shattered and not having access to the kind of help that comes with living in mainstream society, the WSW community were among the worst affected during the first and second wave of COVID-19. Despite immense suffering, many of them still got organised on the frontlines, distributing ART drugs for those afflicted with HIV/AIDS, medicines for diabetics, food and other essentials with little to no funding, notes Kallana.

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