Aisa lagata tha chunav prachar ho hi nahin raha (It seemed no election campaign was going on). Sheela Devi talks about her experience of the Uttarakhand Assembly elections, which were held in February this year. "Phones were the main medium of canvassing support. Politicians were not visiting houses to seek votes. People were masked up," she says. "Asha workers would distribute masks to those who didn't have any, and sanitisers were being used." The 58-year-old has every reason to talk about Uttarakhand when Himachal Pradesh is going to polls - both are hill states and are often called devbhoomi. She has the geographical as well as professional advantage. Based in Vikas Nagar, Uttarakhand, she has worked as a health supervisor at Paonta Sahib Civil Hospital in Sirmaur district, Himachal Pradesh. It takes her only 20 minutes to go from one place to another, divided by Yamuna river. But it takes her a lot of effort to come to terms with the election scene prevailing in Himachal. "Recently, I had gone to Paonta Sahib Civil Hospital. I saw masks only at the hospital. There were no masks at the market as well as political gatherings," she says. Sheela strikes a note of caution. "Covid cases are still being reported. We need to be careful," she says. There is every reason to take Covid as well as Sheela seriously because she has fought a war against the virus. Her husband and son had tested positive for Covid, but that did not deter her from performing her duty: vaccinating people. And her performance has been brilliant, "administering 1,000 doses a day on many occasions". "I worked from 8 am to 8 pm. I was in charge of cold storage of vaccines for Rajpur block. I used to prepare a daily report on utilisation and distribution of vaccines," she says. "I conducted 258 vaccination sessions - one session a day - without any chhutti." The then senior medical officer, Paonta Sahib Civil Hospital, Dr Sanjeev Sehgal, corroborates her claim. "She performed the highest number of vaccinations and did not take a single chhutti (holiday)," he says. When she reached the figure of 38,000 doses, she was honoured by the state government at Bilaspur in the presence of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and BJP national president J P Nadda on December 5, 2021. The Central government honour came this year when she recorded 58,000 doses. Health Minister Mandaviya awarded her on March 8 this year in New Delhi. Although Sheela retired on June 30 this year, she is still concerned about the pandemic and public health. "Abhi humein savdhani bartani chahiye (We still need to exercise caution)," she says. "Chunav humein sehat aur bimari mein se karna hai (We have to elect from between health and disease)." Any takers for this dose of wisdom?
