Odisha: Ganjam’s Karanjara village shows way to beat Covid

BERHAMPUR: At a time when governments and health experts are struggling to contain Covid-19 across the country, a tiny village in Ganjam district has successfully managed to keep the virus at bay ever since the start of the pandemic over a year back.
Karanjara, a predominantly fishing village in Danapur panchayat under Khallikote block of the district and with a population of 1243 has not recorded a single Covid case since its outbreak.
“Since January, Covid test has been conducted on as many as 32 villagers randomly. All of them tested negative,” said Mitali Patra, the block development officer (BDO) of Khallikote. “ASHA and anganwadi workers conduct door-to-door surveys in the village from time to time to assess the health condition of the elderly and high-risk people,” she said. The village, which is some 50 km away from Khallikote, has 261 households.
Ganjam district collector Vijay Amruta Kulange along with the BDO recently went to the village and interacted with the locals. “We are very happy as the villagers are very much aware of the Covid guidelines. All the villagers, even women and children wear masks and maintaining social distance while they come out from their home,” Kulange said. “It is this determination which is helping them stay away from getting infected,” he added.
“We created massive awareness among villagers from the beginning of the pandemic about the use of masks and maintaining social distancing. ASHA and anganwadi workers played their role in this. The villagers are also following the instructions,” said Danapur sarapanch Manoj Kumar Pradhan.
“When some of us have to go out of the village, we following Covid protocol,” said Trinath Behera, president of Karanjara village committee. “Even though some of our youths are working outside Odisha in states like Mumbai, they did not return to the village last year. Those who had returned were kept in quarantine as per the government decision,” Behera added.
He said there has been hardly any celebration in the village since the outbreak of Covid-19. “People are very hardworking and they keep to their job of fishing from Khara Khari river and cultivation. They hardly have time for anything else,” said another villager. The village youths undertake cleanliness drive from time to time.
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