A service that has never been offered nearby is not a service anyone has refused.
Thogawa Pahari Tola sits eight kilometres from the block centre and 109 kilometres from the district headquarters, with no road connectivity. Fifty-four households, largely Baiga and Gond, with recorded literacy of 12 per cent.
Families had not been using routine immunisation. The reason recorded at the time was a belief that vaccination could anger a deity and make children ill. That explanation should not be used to characterise a whole community. Fear of the fever that can follow a vaccination, distance, little prior contact with services anyone trusted, and the simple absence of an accessible session all shape a decision like this.
During a child health and nutrition campaign, a DEHAT block coordinator visited homes together with the ASHA and the ANM. They did not begin at a distant facility or with a written instruction. They spoke with families where they lived and then convened a community meeting. The discussion ran about two hours.
Families asked their questions and agreed collectively to immunisation for eligible children and pregnant women. The health workers organised a session in the village. Twelve children up to two years old and six pregnant women were immunised that day.
Community agreement, frontline workers being physically present, and a service brought close enough to reach all mattered. DEHAT facilitated the dialogue and the coordination. The ASHA and ANM provided the clinical service and the link to the system. Families made the decision.
The original report called this a hundred per cent immunised village. Its own evidence supports one session and the number reached that day. Full immunisation means age-appropriate doses over time against a verified denominator, and the headline should not survive.
What can be claimed is still substantial: people who had been outside the service raised their concerns, agreed to take part and got a session in their own settlement, with a stated commitment to continue.
A service that has never been offered nearby is not a service anyone has refused.
Two Hours, and a Session That Comes to the Village
The coordination that gets an ANM, an ASHA and a community meeting into the same week in a settlement with no road. That is the entire cost of the change here.