Vaccinations in India: the heroes helping children from poor families get immunised, and how they do it
- Poor Hindus and Muslims throughout India harbour dangerous misconceptions about vaccinations, meaning millions of children miss out
- The situation is improving thanks to community figures who break down barriers, and a government that is learning valuable lessons
“Come any closer and I’ll drop him,” shrieked the man, holding his baby upside down by the legs above a well.
Word had reached the village outside Varanasi, a city in northeast India, that a government team was coming to vaccinate babies and young children. The father had grabbed his son and rushed to the well in the fields. His threat was shouted at Ibrahim Khan, part of the team, as he approached the distraught father.
That day, Khan was forced to beat a tactical retreat. It took many visits to persuade the Muslim families in the village that the vaccines would not make the baby boys impotent.
“Eventually that man too came round and we vaccinated his son. In some places, people threw bricks and stones at me, once boiling water from the first floor. But it’s that baby hanging over the well I can’t forget,” Khan says.
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Khan was accompanying the team of health workers, but he is not with the government. His real job is running a pathology laboratory. His voluntary work, as a trusted person in the Muslim community in Varanasi, is helping to persuade Muslim families to vaccinate their children as part of the government’s efforts, backed by Unicef, to protect every child from vaccine-preventable diseases through immunisation.
Varanasi is a holy city for Hindus. Muslims are a minority both in the city and throughout India. The majority are very poor and uneducated. Poor Hindus also harbour misconceptions about vaccinations but what complicates matters among poor Muslims is that, as a minority that often feels insecure, a “besieged” mentality can render them more vulnerable to rumours.