The ‘Inside Districts’ series launched in April 2020 is a one-of-its-kind attempt to capture the experiences of district and Block-level officials, panchayat functionaries, beneficiaries, and frontline workers, on their challenges and best practices.

This interview was conducted with an Anganwadi Worker in Jaipur, Rajasthan in Hindi on 30 May 2021, and has been translated.

Q: What kind of challenges are you facing in the second wave of the pandemic?

Anganwadi Worker (AWW): We are busy conducting door-to-door surveys. However, the problem is that people don’t want us to visit them. They say that they are completely okay and since we are coming from outside, we can potentially infect them.

Q: Are there any preschool educational activities being organised for children?

AWW: All educational activities are happening online. We receive learning material from an NGO, and we message the same to the parents of the students via mobile phone.

Q: What is your role in the COVID-19 vaccination drive? Are there any challenges?

AWW: I make people aware about the vaccination process and ask them to go and get vaccinated. If someone is apprehensive, I give them my example and tell them that I did not have severe side effects when I got vaccinated. We generally have multiple discussions with people who don’t want to get vaccinated. For the 18-44 years category, vaccines are not available as of now.

More experiences can be found on the dedicated Inside Districts platform.