It Takes A Village...

...to show how to keep Covid at bay. Welcome to Veewan, a remote hamlet in Kashmir

- MOAZUM MOHAMMAD

HAPPINESS MANTRA

“We are determined to beat Covid. All adults and eligible teenagers here have taken the vaccine” —ALI MOHAMMAD, RESIDENT OF VEEWAN

Unbelievable but true: a village in Kashmir has remained Covid-free through three waves of the pandemic. The remote village of Veewan in north Kashmir’s Bandipora district— currently under a blanket of snow— has an adult population of 362. Wali Mohammad, a health official who was deputed to the village last July to conduct Covid tests, recounts: “The village is inaccessible. We trekked 17 km on foot to get there,” says the 47-year-old paramedic. “Not a single resident was apprehensive about Covid and people were engrossed in their daily routines.”