Veer Vora

The Indian government has created this system called CoWIN for the vaccination of the country. CoWIN has a two-step process. Firstly, every Indian has to register themselves on CoWIN mandatorily and connect their Aadhar (something like a social security number). The second step is to book a slot at a vaccination centre. Now here is the problem, we are a country of over 1.3 billion people and the vaccines are limited, so whenever you try to book a slot, it will almost always show that all the slots are booked. And people have been trying for so many days without getting their slots booked.

My father thought of this brilliant idea of creating a portal where you can get your slot, guaranteed. Everyone will have to do step 1, but for step 2, people book their slot through his portal. So, he partnered up with Jaslok hospital (one of India’s top Hospitals) and launched the portal. He asked me to visit the vaccination centre for the first day and I sat at the registration booth and verified the people as they came in.

Since the start of the second wave, I wanted to do something big, something that will help others. It was because there was just so much negativity and death everywhere. I spoke to my friends about it as well but we could not get any bright ideas. I kept on thinking of visiting hospitals and helping them in any way possible and this was my chance.

My father was not in town for the other slot days so I took over. Every day from 1pm to 5pm, I was at the centre, helping out. Ticking names of registered people on the lists, giving them their vaccine forms, and making them stand in line. The doctors and other staff members know me very well now. There were instances where people who came to take the vaccine were telling me that they had been trying for 2 months but could not get a slot on CoWIN but were so happy to finally get vaccinated. I even helped fill out forms of people who could not write. When people who had not registered had come, I wrote their names on the back of the list and made sure even they got their vaccine. This worked because we always had a few who didn’t show up even after registering.

A vial has ten doses and once a vial is opened within a certain amount of time all the doses must be given, and if not, then the remaining doses go waste. So, I called up people from the list who registered and did not show up until we got all ten at the end of the day. And this is why the doctors appreciated even more.

My father did not earn a single rupee in this whole process. He did it as a service for the city. My seniors told me to use the vacation to do internships and courses, but this felt more important to me. Just getting a smile from behind masks (I know it was there), and a thank you from hundreds of people on their way out was really fulfilling and satisfying.

If you live in Mumbai and need to get vaccinated, please log onto my father’s portal csr.tecogis.com and register yourself.

Thank You