Thousands rally around Farooque Shaikh on his visit to Agra and Ferozabad
By Sugata Roy AGRA/FEROZABAD: With more than three thousand people listening, and as many necks craning to watch him, the voice of Farooque Shaikh rings in the open space the narrow alleys have led him to. “God forbid if your child's future is paralyzed by polio due to your negligence. How will you face him or her? If he or she asks you – Ammijan, Abbajaan (mother, father) what was my fault? Will you have an answer?” The words send many into a meditative silence before he breaks it again. “So, make sure that you immunize and protect your child till polio is eradicated,” he says before handing over the microphone to the Commissioner of Agra region Sita Ram Meena who has traveled from Agra to spend the day with him. In two hours, he attends five such public meetings and addresses around 10,000 people. As he walks from one booth to another, hundreds join him. “This is a road show,” remarks an enthusiast trying to keep pace with him. Film personality Farooque Shaikh has been visiting “difficult” areas for the polio programme for many years and his contribution is widely acknowledged. After helping reduce refusal to negligible numbers in Meerut and Muradabd and other parts of western Uttar Pradesh, Shaikh was back in action in Ferozabad, a district which has been reporting more refusals than is common and negative media reports about children “dying” after taking polio drops, fuelling refusal further. Ferozabad with five cases has been regarded as a district of emerging risk, hence Shaikh’s visit during the year’s first round. Post-visit, there has been a dramatic change in immunization trends in the area. At booth nine in the thick of urban Ferozabad which reported 48 refusal families, the number halved – it fell to 24. What doubled was the number of children immunized on the booth day – indicating voluntary and proactive immunization – rose to 300. Other booths matched the success of booth nine. At booths 12 and 19, as many as 489 and 272 children were immunized in January. When compared with the figures of the November round (391 and 171 children), the change is significant. Also went up the “influencer movement” to 84 per cent with the teams during the house-to-house activity which indicates the local influencers’ support to the vaccinator. According to Chief Medical Officer of Ferozabad, Dr A.K. Mishra the “Sector II area” has been a major concern for the district administration since the detection of a type 3 polio case (attributed to the type 3 strain of the poliovirus) in August 2007. “Mr Farooque Shaikh's visit has made a great deal of difference. The booth coverage across Sector II and Sector III has gone up when compared to the previous rounds," he said.
The impact of a previous visit made by him was narrated by the District Magistrate of Ferozabad Mukersh Meshram during his tenure in Meerut. “After Farooque saheb visited Meerut, refusal fell to negligible numbers. I am certain we will have the same achievements in Agra and Ferozabad,” he said. He shared his optimism with the media in both Agra and Ferozabad, “We are on the verge of creating history. The number of Type 1 polio cases in western Uttar Pradesh is at an all-time low – a testimony to the fact that the polio eradication programme in the state is successful,” he said. He urged the media to dispel myths and misconceptions. He also told them that polio vaccine is perfectly safe and that unfortunate incidents such as a child’s death during a round should not be linked to the polio vaccine. He asked for media support in getting correct information across to the people. Mediapersons not only turned up in good numbers, they wrote many stories about the visit, placing these sometimes on their special colour pages. Uttar Pradesh’s prominent Hindi newspaper Amar Ujjala reported on the impact of his visit by carrying a report with the headline: Farooque ka kaha maan rahe hain log" (People are acting on Farooque's appeal). Not at peace till refusals or polio cases are reported, Shaikh calls for details of the remaining refusal cases as he reads a film script in Mumbai. He plans to phone community leaders, make more visits and walk more miles till polio is eradicated.
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