The model village of Hiware Bazar in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra is showing the way on how to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. From 1-20 May, there has not been a single case of Covid-19 in Hiware Bazar, located in the Nagar tehsil.
Over the last three decades, the village that has a population of 1,600 -1,700, has seen a transformation from being a drought-prone village to a model village, known for rainwater harvesting, water conservation, and management programmes.
“We have successfully managed to break the chain during the second wave,” Popatrao Pawar, the Up-Sarpanch of Hiware Bazar, told The Sunday Guardian.
Between March-April 2021, 52 cases were reported in the village out of which five were on ventilator, but now over the past fortnight, there have been zero cases. So far, only two deaths from Covid-19 have been reported in the village. A lot of efforts has gone into breaking the chain. Social distancing is compulsory in the village and wearing masks is also compulsory. Even villagers are allowed to buy grocery once a week.
Ashok Rao, whose family of six people contracted Covid, told The Sunday Guardian that when they got Covid, all of them quarantined at a village school. Within 15 days, the test reports came negative. He said: “Corona is curable and there is no need to create a panic.”
Mahadev, who used to work in the army, took voluntarily retirement from the army and is now working in the general administration department at the Mantralay in Mumbai. When he came to the village, his antigen test done and he was found Covid positive. He immediately quarantined at an isolation center made by the village panchayat outside the village. In this way, he saved his family from contracting Covid. At Hiware Bazar, rapid antigen test has been made compulsory for outsiders who enter the village and, in this way, the spread of Covid-19 is being checked.
A recipient of Padmshee award, Popatrao Pawar, up-sarpanch of the village said: “However, we are not going to lower our guard. We have made it compulsory in the village that once you come outside your home, wearing N-95 mask is mandatory.”
The gram panchayat provides the N95 masks and sanitisers to every household. In this 2,000 population village, house sanitisers have been kept outside houses.
Four vehicles have been arranged by the gram panchayat for ferrying serious Covid-19 patients to Ahmadnagar so that they don’t have to rely on government ambulance. The village has made its own isolation center where symptomatic patients are treated. Critically ill patients are shifted to the Ahamadnagar civic hospital. Since the last 20 days, not a single Covid case has been reported in the village.
Villagers step outside their houses wearing masks; social distancing is being followed in the village. Every house hola in the village has a cow; they sell the additional milk at a near-by milk factory. Milk collection center has been set up inside the village which opens three hours in the morning and three hours in the night. The milk collection center has fixed timings among each household so that villagers do not come together at a center.
The gram panchayat holds regular meetings with villagers, informing him about the Covid trend. Hiware Bazar held a vaccination drive on Thursday where 70 peoples got the vaccine from 82-year-old ladies to 35-years-old frontline workers. The gram panchayat is making a list of people who will take the vaccine first. The lists include senior citizens and frontline workers. Till now, 250 villagers got vaccines over a period of three months. Those who are coming to take vaccine, have to first go for antigen test. If the rapid test results is negative, then they l proceed for vaccine.
When 52 people got Covid, the gram panchayat made his own SOPs and Covid 19 rules and regulations. The SOPs specify that no social function can take place for another month; no gathering will be allowed. Mask wearing is compulsory and social distancing is compulsory even if one is meeting one’s neighbours. Ahmednagar’s Collector Rajendra Bhosale and Zilla Parishad CEO Rajendra Kshirsagar have appreciated the efforts of Hiware Bazar and Pawar.
On the ongoing agricultural activities, Pawar said that nearly 300 to 400 people come and work in the fields. “We have made arrangements for their stay near the villages,” he said, adding that in agricultural fields also, Covid-appropriate behaviour has to be maintained. Last month, 52 villagers where found positive, but due to the gram panchayat and Popatrao Pawar’s efforts, now the village is Covid free.