4,000 Gadap Town kids may be vaccinated against polio now, thanks to Jirga

By Our Correspondent
November 12, 2018

As a new campaign against polio starts in Karachi on Monday (today), a Jirga was held in the infamous Gujro union council of Gadap Town, where many parents have always refused the administering of polio drops to their children.

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The organisers of the Jirga claimed that the event was a success because it had managed to persuade the locals to let polio teams do their work in the UC. The Jirga was held under the banner ‘Qatray Pilao, Polio Bhagao’.

The Jirga was organised under the aegis of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s parliamentary party leader in the Sindh Assembly Haleem Adil Sheikh, who is an MPA from the PS-99 constituency that covers Gujro UC. PS-100 MPA Karim Bux Gabol was also present on the occasion.

The Jirga organisers said parents of the area had been refusing the administering of polio vaccine to some 4,000 children of the UC eligible to be covered in a polio campaign. The participants were informed that Gujro is among the only three UCs of the country where there are recurring polio cases because parents do not allow the administering of polio drops to their children.

Leaders and representatives of different ethnic communities whose people reside in the UC announced on the occasion that the locals will allow polio teams to work in future and let them administer polio drops to their children.

The East deputy commissioner assured the representatives that the polio vaccine does not contain any harmful content that can compromise the health of their children. MPA Qadir Bux Gabol also appealed to the parents to cooperate with the district administration and let the polio teams do their work.

Sheikh expressed gratitude to the parents and other locals for their support. He appealed to the local municipal administration to repair the sewerage system of the UC to improve its sanitary conditions because unchecked sewage is always the primary cause of the transmission of the polio virus.

He urged the provincial government to resolve the issue of a serious water shortage in the area, as the people of the UC are facing hardships due to scarcity of the most essential commodity.

He also urged the district administration not to treat the UC as a no-go area any more in the provision of compulsory civic services in the area, as the locals are completely ready to extend cooperation to the government.

Sheikh said polio should not be regarded as a political or a controversial issue, as a unified effort of all the stakeholders is required to resolve this problem for good. The latest anti-polio drive will be conducted all across Karachi and in 18 other districts of Sindh from November 12 to 19.

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