Daily Times

It’s a crying shame, really, that this far into the 21^st century Pakistan remains one of only two countries in the whole world that have not been able to overcome the polio virus. That the other country is Afghanistan, which has seen nothing but war for at least the last four decades, only puts us in a more awkward position. How do we look when the whole world appreciates how we handled the first wave of the pandemic and then finds out that we are doing so badly on the polio front? To be fair, successive administrations have tried to do what they could to put this virus in the past once and for all, but for a whole host of reasons their efforts have come short every time.

The biggest obstacle of course is people’s refusal to get their children vaccinated. And no matter how much we try to brush this particular issue under the carpet, the fact of the matter is that for far too long the state has allowed a handful of clerics to muddy the debate by unnecessarily and quite wrongly giving it a very sensitive, often religious, colour. An extreme form of this tendency is seen in repeated instances of volunteer anti-polio workers being gunned down. So far authorities have responded by increasing security cordons around such teams, which is both necessary and correct, but it is the mindset that needs to be corrected if the problem is to be really overcome.

And in that regard the government’s efforts have left a little something to be desired. Sure, they have tried to promote the anti-polio drive on state TV and radio, even got outside channels to run special segments and involved celebrities in the process, but they are clearly having trouble in reaching the periphery. And they really need to step up their interaction with the clergy, which has the greatest outreach and can help drive the message home to the largest number of people. Even when all else has failed to completely wipe out polio, the administration seems a little reluctant in going down this road with full force. This is, after all, a problem that affects everybody. And it is time for all stakeholders to finally get us on the road to a polio free Pakistan. *