Vaccination awareness, eagerness and hesitancy in urban communities of Mumbai & Pune

In Pune, 21 per cent of the 1,332 respondents had received at least one dose of the vaccination. Of the remaining respondents, 42 per cent were unwilling to get vaccinated and nine per cent had not made up their mind about it. The rest were willing to take the dose.

Among those in Pune who were hesitant about the vaccine, 51 per cent believed it could cause health risks, 30 per cent reported not knowing enough about it, six per cent said they could not afford it, and one per cent felt they did not need the vaccine as they were healthy. Four per cent of these respondents stated the cause to be the unavailability of vaccines at centres, and seven per cent cited other reasons such as preferring natural remedies, inability to take leave from work and more.

In Mumbai, 15 per cent of the 2,343 respondents had received at least one dose of the vaccination. Out of the remaining, about 24 per cent did not want get vaccinated and 22 per cent were undecided about it.

Among those in Mumbai who were hesitant to take the Covid-19 vaccine, 50 per cent believed there could be health risks, 18 per cent reported not knowing enough about it, nine per cent cited the unavailability of vaccines at centres, seven per cent did not have permission from their families, five per cent believed that vaccines were “not the right course of treatment,” two per cent stated that travelling to the vaccination centre would be difficult due to the distance and traveling cost.

The main reasons for vaccination hesitancy in Mumbai and Pune were the same – the fear of health risks and insufficient information. Pune recorded fewer cases where respondents lacked family permission, believed vaccines were not the right course of treatment, and reported it to be the difficult to reach centres. The perception that vaccination centres were understocked was more prevalent in Mumbai than Pune.

In many cases, the older family members did not encourage getting vaccinated. They believed vaccines to be harmful, their primary sources being news channels and WhatsApp messages. Many women reported being barred from taking the dose by family elders.

Several respondents stated that the Covid-19 pandemic had adversely impacted their health, financial stability and the freedom to form human connections. The healthcare infrastructure was severely overburdened, and this disrupted access to health services for many in their communities.

Many spoke of the importance of protocols like wearing masks, sanitising and social distancing. At the same time, they emphasised the lack of space, infrastructure and awareness in their communities, to follow through with such practices.

In the study’s focus group discussions, respondents reported having lost faith in the healthcare system. Some said they felt unsafe visiting government hospitals for treatment having heard of people losing lives there. They felt private hospitals were cheating people for money, citing cases of fake Covid-19 reporting and medical fraud.

The report provides two broad recommendations: designing reliable information and communication tools to counter widespread misinformation among households and communities; and addressing operational barriers in CoWin registration (the government of India’s vaccination portal) by organising community training programmes with the help of organisations, frontline healthcare workers and other volunteers.

Focus and Factoids by Nikita Sawhney.

PARI Library's health archive project is part of an initiative supported by the Azim Premji University to develop a free-access repository of health-related reports relevant to rural India.