DERA ISMAIL KHAN: Carrying out an anti-polio campaign gets on the nerves of district administration as it confronts a deluge of refusals from the women teachers to perform duty in the drive.

“ We are cooperating accordingly, and have deputed 120 women teachers to perform duty in the three-day anti-polio vaccination drive, but less than 40 of them reported on the first day of the campaign while the rest did not turn up, making lame excuses,” District Education Officer Hazra Bibi told Dawn.

She said that those absentee teachers whose explanations were found false would face suspension from their jobs as per directives of deputy commissioner. She said that some of their colleagues had already faced such penalty in the past.

However, the official did not confirm exact number of such teachers. “I can’t tell firmly but number of such shirkers will be more than ten,” she added.

Women teachers reluctant to take part in the campaign

The education department has deputed a total of 256 teachers, including 122 female, for performing duty in the current polio campaign. During the campaign, anti-polio drops would be administered to over 2,74,000 children across the district.

A teacher, who requested not to be named, said that they had to face several bureaucratic hurdles to get remuneration for the vaccination duty. Above all, fear of insecurity gripped them when paid visit to remote localities, he said.

The coordinator of Expanded Programme on Immunisation, Dr Syed Mohammad said that elaborate arrangements were made to save children from the crippling disease through administration of anti-polio drops.

He said that a total of 750 teams were constituted, including 658 mobile, 54 fixed and 38 transit teams, to administer anti-polio drops to children in the district. He said the district was divided in 47 union councils that would be visited by well-trained teams to vaccinate children.  

The official said that a number of refusal cases were recorded in the district during the previous campaigns but effective strategy was adopted to convince the parents to administer anti-polio drops to their children. The refusal cases were being addressed gradually in a successful manner, he added.

In Chitral, the anti-polio campaign was kicked off on Monday by Deputy Commissioner Aminul Haq, who administered drops to a four-year child in the children hospital.

The deputy commissioner was told by DHO Dr Israrullah and Dr Nazir Ahmed that during the campaign, 497 mobile teams would administer anti-polio drops to 63,438 children under five years in the district. They said that the teams would be monitored by 97 area monitors.

They said that nine transit points were established at the bus stands and airport to vaccinate the children. They said that drops would also be administered to children of the targeted group at 36 fixed centre across the district.  

The officials said that Chitral had been polio-free for the last two decades and no refusal case was ever registered in the district.  

In Bajaur Agency, a three-day anti-polio drive was launched on Monday amid tight security to thwart any untoward incident during the campaign.

Mohammad Shuaib Khan, a senior official of the local health department, told journalists that 694 teams were taking part in the drive to vaccinate 226,310 children under five years of age across the agency.

He said that about 1,630 health workers including volunteers, teachers, officials and supporting staff were participating in the drive. Regarding the security arrangements, he said that local administration had taken extraordinary security measures for the protection of the vaccinators.

Mr Khan said that two Levies men and two volunteers of peace committees would accompany each team of vaccinators in the ‘less sensitive’ areas while two Levies men, two members of village defence committee and two officials of security forces would deploy each team in the ‘most sensitive areas’.

To a question, the official said that law and order situation in almost all areas of Bajaur was favourable for the drive and there was no threat to health teams in any part of the agency. He said that refusal cases were reduced in the agency during the last drives and no polio case was reported in the area during the last couple of years.

The official said that tribal people were aware of the importance of anti-polio drive as people from all walks of life particularly tribal elders, religious scholars and political leaders were supporting the health teams in the immunisation campaign.

However, the local health department and the political administration failed to arrange an inauguration ceremony of the current anti polio-drive in the agency.

“We have been advised by the officials of Fata Health Directorate to arrange an inauguration ceremony before launching the drive to inform tribal elders and religious scholars about the importance of the drive but the senior officials refused to organise the event owing to unknown reasons,” sources in health department said.  

They said that Fata Health Directorate showed anger over not holding an inauguration ceremony for the anti-polio drive in the agency. They said that the directorate also issued show cause notice to local health department for not organising the event.

Although the local officials of health department claimed that refusal cases were reduced in the agency during the last several drives, yet the representatives of World Health Organisation in Bajaur didn’t agree with them.

Sources in WHO told Dawn that refusal cases in the agency, particularly in the border areas of Mamond, Salarzai and Nawagai tehsils, were increased by 15 per cent during the last several months.

Published in Dawn, September 30th, 2014