A special Covid vaccination camp for physically and mentally challenged students and other differently abled persons from 18 to 44 year age group was organised on Wednesday at Pehla Kadam, a school for special students at Jagjivan Nagar, by Narayani Charitable Trust.

The camp, the first of its kind in the district, was launched on Wednesday morning at around 10 am in the presence of Deputy Development Commissioner, Dasrath Chandra Das and eminent physician, Dr Nirmal Drolia of Patliputra Nursing Home of Dhanbad.

District Reproductive and Child Health Officer of Dhanbad, Dr Vikash Kumar Rana who also visited the vaccination site and supervised the special session himself said, “It is first of its kind camp for special students of 18+ category in the district organised today with the Deputy Commissioner Uma Shankar Singh’s permission.”

“We have plans for organising special camps for other vulnerable sections of society like street vendors, newspaper hawkers, auto drivers, etc at different places of the district as soon as we receive the sufficient doses of vaccines,” further said Rana.

“We appreciate the initiative taken by school management led by its founder Anita Agarwal for organising camp during which a large majority of physically and mentally challenged students of the host school besides some special youth of other parts of the district also received vaccination doses,” said Rana.

Anita Anarwal said, “Altogether 50 persons, majority of which are our students, got registered for vaccination before the beginning of the camp but the figures rose to 60 as on spot registration of some were also carried out.”

Shivam Burnwal ,18, a physically challenged student of the school who arrived at the centre along with his fruit seller father Sanjay Kumar Burnwal and mother Sangita Burnwal, said, “I felt no reaction after taking the vaccine and rather felt quite secure after taking the dose.”

“After completing matriculation I am preparing for ITI exams and was concerned how I would go out without taking a vaccine for study related work but felt quite relaxed today,” said Burnwal.

Echoing his sentiments, 29-year-old Imran Khan, a physically challenged licensee engineer of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation who also took the Covishield dose in the camp said, “As soon as I came to know about the vaccination camp, I readily contacted Anita ma'am and feeling quite relaxed after taking the vaccine dose appeal to all others to take vaccine as soon as possible.”

Shivaji Singh Yadav, a retired officer of BCCL, who also turned up at the school for vaccination of his daughter affected by cerebral palsy, said, “The camp at the school has solved our entire concern for vaccination of our daughter compared with a general vaccination centre as we are getting difficulty to book the slots due to huge rush at the site.”