BADIN: A large number of people mostly hailing from coastal villages reportedly refused to get their children vaccinated during the polio campaign on Wednesday.

Accordingly to reports, when health workers visited their houses, parents in the coastal villages of the union councils of Bhugra Memon, Dodo Soomro, Seerani and others did not allow them to administer polio vaccination to their children for various reasons, describing the main cause as artificial shortage of water in their waterways. The team was puzzled over the refusals and reported the matter to police.

Seerani police reportedly arrested around a dozen villagers for denying vaccination to their children during the anti-polio campaign.

Villagers Ayub Mallah, Ramzan Mallah, Khamiso Mallah, Achar Mallah and others raised slogans and protested against the police action. Talking to reporters, they said that on one hand they were not being given water for the past six months even for drinking while on the other police were taking action. They said Ramzan Mallah, Arab Loond and others had been arrested by the police.

The protesting villagers demanded immediate release of the arrested individuals and water in their distributaries, threatening that they would not allow vaccination of their children and continue their protest till acceptance of their demands.

The deputy commissioner could not be contacted. Polio vaccination campaign in-charge Dr Karim Bux Gadahi termed the situation unfortunate and claimed that all possible steps would be taken to ensure that every child was administered polio drops.

Dr Gadahi confirmed that the vaccination process was disrupted in a dozen villages where the villagers were putting up various demands, including provision of water to their areas and posting teachers in their schools.

He said the Peshawar incident, where a large number of children allegedly fell ill after taking polio vaccination, caused fear and panic among the villagers, including the educated people of Dubi, and other nearby villages. But after hectic efforts, their children were vaccinated, he added.

A revenue official said that it was responsibility of all parents to get their children vaccinated.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2019