Special polio drive for children of brick kiln workers

Lucknow, July 2 (UNI) Realising that children of brick kiln workers are often left out during polio immunisation drives, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to launch a special drive for them.

The state Health Department said a majority of children born to the labourers working in brick kilns of Uttar Pradesh often skip the pulse polio drops as a result of which the polio virus poses a danger for them.

Since the labourers keep migrating from one place to another, polio workers often miss them during special drives.

The kiln workers on their part do not take their children to the polio booths due to lack of awareness.

Since they do not have a permanent dwelling, they are not often covered by the polio workers during the house-to-house drive.

Talking to reporters during the formal launch of the sixth phase of pulse polio drive here yesterday, Director General, Family Welfare, Dr L B Prasad said, this time the Health Department workers and pulse polio volunteers have made special effort to cover children born to labourers working in brick kilns.

The department has identified 297 brick kilns where the booths have been set up and volunteers will also go on the house-to-house visit.

In a bid to cover every child under the age of five, 259 supervisors, 71 mobile teams and 226 transit teams have been deployed in the state.

As many as 14 officers have been deputed to conduct the drive on war footing in each district. To ensure cent-per-cent coverage in high risk areas, 136 areas have been identified so far and special teams have been deputed.

In Lucknow, as many as 8,08,684 children were administered pulse polio drops under the national pulse polio immunisation programme.

UNI