In Uttar Pradesh bylanes, children help fight polio

MUZAFFARNAGAR - On any polio immunisation day, eight-year-old Ayad Hussain wakes up early, finishes his breakfast and by 7 a.m., along with a dozen other children, is on the city streets to motivate people to get their children vaccinated.

Ayad is among the thousands of children who are part of ‘bulawa tolis’ (calling groups) in Uttar Pradesh, which are doing a great job to ensure every child gets vaccinated in the polio endemic state, also India’s most populous.

Dressed in white T-shirts with blue and yellow caps and carrying whistles, the ‘bulawa toli’ goes from house to house on the vaccination day and brings children to the polio vaccination booths.

And the idea by Unicef to involve children in the programme over a couple of years has caught on among kids like Ayad, who is very enthusiastic despite having a disability in his right leg.

What is interesting is that members of the ‘bulawa tolis’ know the details of all children under five in their area and ensure that not a single child is left unvaccinated against the crippling disease that affects children under five.

“I know about all the children under five in my locality. We go house to house and tell parents to bring their children for vaccination. Many a time we also bring children to the polio booths and then drop them back,” said Ayad, who uses a walking frame for movement.

Talking about the work of the ‘bulawa toli’, Ayad says they are taught about the importance of polio drops for children before they join it.

Nadeem, 17, has been with the ‘bulawa toli’ for the last four years and has been the biggest attraction of the group as he is autistic.

“Despite being autistic he has been able to gain the confidence of parents to bring their children to the booth. At the booth he is always very attentive and stops each under-five child to check their fingers for marking,” said an official at the polio booth.

There are two types of polio viruses prevalent in India - P1 and P3. The transmission of the most dangerous virus P1, which caused 95 percent of polio cases in India till 2006, was at a record low level in 2010.

Uttar Pradesh, the most endemic state and the epicentre of most polio outbreaks in the country, has not reported any P1 case since November 2009. Muzaffarnagar reported two P3 cases last year.

Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are two polio-endemic states in the country.

According to Unicef, these children are the soul of the polio eradication programme and have been playing an important role in getting children to booths.

“Children motivate people for polio vaccination and it has a big impact on them. They (children) are so aware that they easily convince parents for vaccination,” said Safia, a district underserved coordinator, social mobilisation network (SMNet), Unicef.

India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria are four polio-endemic countries in the world.

India has reported a drop of 94 percent in polio cases with only 42 cases being reported in 2010 as compared to 741 in 2009. Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut district, which saw 26 cases of polio in 2009, recorded none last year.

(Richa Sharma can be contacted at richa.s@ians.in)