Creating a narrative favourable to eradicate polio
The recent killing of four polio health workers in Quetta (south-west Pakistan) raises the death toll of assassinated polio workers in Pakistan to over sixty in the last two years. Terrorists also injured three others after opening fire on the group once their campaign in the region ended.
In Pakistan, a majority of polio health workers are women. Being in the forefront of national polio campaign in the country makes them a target for militant groups.
On average, a polio vaccinator earns Rs250 (approx. $2.50) a day, which cannot be the prime motivator for this life-threatening work. Many seemingly participate out of a desire to see a polio-free Pakistan.
The situation in Pakistan is worsening; there were 246 reported cases of polio in 2014, consistent with an increasing trend of reported cases since 2012.
In 2013, there were a total of 93 reported cases of polio, and 58 reported cases in 2012. Pakistan is one of three countries where polio remains endemic — the others are Nigeria and Afghanistan.
There are two major factors that potentially explain aggravating polio crisis in Pakistan:
A lack of trust between communities and vaccination staff after the CIA ran a fake vaccination campaign as a cover to hunt Osama bin Laden in 2011. The operation arguably created an environment of suspicion towards health workers and organisations working in the arena. There is a general perception in Pakistan that the CIA’s espionage seriously harmed the national campaign against polio in the country, particularly in the remote tribal areas of the country. Although CIA has reportedly assured not to use the similar public health campaigns again in their operations anywhere in the world but it’s too little, too late in terms of harm they have caused to the national health campaign against polio in Pakistan. After the OBL operation, militants in the country started targeting anyone participating in the polio vaccination programmes in Pakistan, and attacked these workers on a massive scale.
The second major obstacle is the extremists’ rhetoric that the polio vaccine is impermissible in Islam and is a Western ‘conspiracy’ to sterilise Muslim children. Many hard-line clerics took a strong stance against the polio vaccination, which undermines the scale and magnitude of a problem that affects the lives of hundreds of Pakistani children. The propaganda and misconceptions around the polio campaign from fundamentalist religious leaders also present a barrier that puts the lives of polio workers at great risk. In 2012, one cleric from Muzaffarabad announced in the local mosque that ‘jihad’ was the only option left to stop the on-going ‘un-Islamic’ polio campaigns in the country.
Their ruthless stance against the children of Pakistan is indeed appalling. Denying their fundamental right to healthcare is not only in violation of the constitution of Pakistan but also in clear contradiction with the Islamic beliefs and traditions. They are unable to comprehend the fact that their senseless stubbornness to harass and target polio workers could deteriorate the polio crisis in Pakistan even further. Issuing fatwas against a medicine to protect their own children from disability and death is plain ignorance and utterly destructive to the future of Pakistan.
This lunacy needs to stop. The civil society groups and the religious leaders of Pakistan must come forward and condemn this barbarity in the strongest possible terms. There is certainly a very crucial role of religious leaders to shatter the stereotypes and to educate the communities that there is nothing un-Islamic about polio vaccination. The extremist narratives against the vaccination must be systematically disrupted and countered. The role of print and electronic media is central in raising awareness on the scale of the polio situation in Pakistan and getting people to vaccinate their children. Last but not least is the formation and implementation of strict laws against anyone spreading misinformation about the polio vaccination or inciting violence against the vaccinators. It’s the prime responsibility of the government to ensure safety and protection of polio health workers in order to realise the dream of a polio-free Pakistan.
The polio campaign in Pakistan represents a grim picture of national and international forces that have put the lives of Pakistani children at stake for their own political and religious gains. No one knows how long it will take for the local people to shatter the stereotypes and suspicions around the polio campaign in Pakistan. But we must acknowledge the audacity of those brave polio vaccinators who risk their lives to protect the children of Pakistan.
Under the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, over 850,000 children under the age of 10 received vaccinations due to this bravery. In challenging extremist narratives that permeate in society, there is room to promote different narratives which teach that a ‘fight’ is not always about destroying something, but that it can be worth fighting to protect the health and well-being of Pakistan’s children.
