The Common Services Centers under the Ministry of Electronics & IT have partnered with Vodafone Idea Foundation, the CSR arm of Vi, for the registration of citizens to receive vaccination against the deadly COVID-19 virus. The initiative will focus on vulnerable and disadvantaged communities.

As per the company’s press release, The CSC Academy, the CSR & Education wing of CSC, will facilitate registration and scheduling of one million beneficiaries for vaccination across the country through the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). The VLEs will act as a focal point for identifying and reaching out to the aging population, slum dwellers, daily wage workers, etc.

Elaborating on the partnership, Dr. Dinesh Tyagi, Managing Director, CSC SVP, said, “CSC has always stepped in to support social initiatives undertaken for the benefit of citizens. Registration of citizens on CoWin App is one such activity that CSC has undertaken as part of our commitment to provide inclusive healthcare to all. Our partnership with Vodafone Idea Foundation will help us to reach out to the most marginalized and disadvantaged communities across the country and get them registered for vaccination under CoWin App and strengthen the Government’s fight against COVID-19.”

Speaking on the initiative, P. Balaji, Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited said, “At VIL, we believe in leveraging technology and innovation to find solutions to the pressing problems in the society. Our joint effort with CSC will provide a scale to reach the 10 Lakh rural population who are in the need to be vaccinated. We aim to create a one-stop service solution for the disadvantaged village citizens, vulnerable population, and slum dwellers by providing them with services on Covid-19 vaccine registration on a unified digital backbone – CoWin App for an impactful vaccination drive in the country.”

The initiative will give preference to citizens who are underprivileged, who do not have access to Internet/Smartphone, or do not know how to operate digital devices. The VLEs will register the citizens directly on CoWin App, map them to local vaccination providers as per the existing process on the App, and schedule their vaccination.

CSC has been identified by the National Health Authority and Ministry of Health & Welfare to mobilize and help the citizens for CoWin platform registration. A dedicated team has been set up for regular monitoring of the project wherein all the tracking will be done through a central dashboard made on the CSC Digital Seva Portal. This will include the report generation, grievance handling, and daily status tracking. Through the link, the beneficiary can download and get the certificate of COVID-19 vaccination from CSC by providing Aadhaar number.

Vodafone Idea Foundation has a long-standing partnership with CSC Academy and has supported the deployment of over 30 mobile vans that are taking financial and digital literacy to the grassroots level. Since last year, these vans have been also used extensively for promoting COVID-19 appropriate behavior, dry ration distribution, etc.