Arunachal Pradesh to allow entry for only vaccinated people. Is this the future for all Indian States?

In a historic decision, the Arunachal Pradesh government, lead by Chief Minister Pema Khandu has declared that they will only allow entry of people who are vaccinated. The decision was conveyed by Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar to the Union home ministry in a review meeting to assess the COVID-19 situation in all the north-eastern states and union territories.

A bid to check the spread of corona virus in the state has made the government take several measures such as aggressive testing, with nearly 68% of the population 18 years and above already inoculated. During the video conference chaired by Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla , Mr Kumar mentioned three strategies taken up by the government namely; extensive tracking and testing, enforcement of Covid appropriate behavior, and vaccination drive for all age groups.

"Arunachal Pradesh needs an additional 3 lakh COVID vaccines to achieve 100% coverage of beneficiaries in the 18-plus and 45-plus age groups,” he added.

The decision to make vaccination a mandatory requisite has been taken to persuade the local residents who have been doubtful about taking the vaccine. Several ingenious incentives have been taken in the recent past to promote vaccination in northeast states by the government bodies such as free rice and cash rewards.

However, despite the noble intentions of the state government, cases of discrimination have been reported in the states on grounds of whether one is vaccinated or not. In Meghalaya capital, Shillong, some NGOs and a local MLA were panned for leaving out the non-vaccinated people while distributing food items to people without ration cards on July 6. Similarly, the organizers of a COVID-19 relief camp in the city’s Happy Valley-Madanriting had announced rice and other essentials would be given only to the vaccinated people. Meghalaya High Court has condemned such actions saying any kind of discrimination and restriction with regard to vaccination was against the fundamental rights of citizens.