QUETTA: As schools have been closed for the winter vacation in Balochistan, it is time for children to go out of their towns and cities to spend time with their relatives.

A huge crowd can be seen these days on Quetta railway station, bus stands and airport where kids are travelling with their parents mostly to Punjab and Sindh.

“I am going to Lahore to spend the winter vacation with my grandmother and grandfather. We will be having fun over there,” says five-year old Asma.

She showed her finger marked with violet colour as she has been administered polio drops.

“We know the polio vaccination is very important for my daughter,” Asma’s father Mohammad Asghar told newsmen at the railway station.

Polio teams were at the railway station to give polio drops to children.

“In November, we had vaccinated more than 4,000 children who were going to Lahore, Rawalpindi, Karachi, Peshawar and other cities of Pakistan,” a member of the polio team said.

The polio teams were also seen at bus terminals. There are many other transit points where they have been deployed

The Yaro check-post is an important transit point and the only gateway to Quetta city, especially from polio high risk districts Pishin and Killa Abdullah as well as Afghanistan.

More than 8,000 children were vaccinated at the Yaro check-post where 14 polio team members are working in two shifts. There are 47 permanent transit points in Balochistan, including 14 in the Quetta block.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2019