OPV – an unbelievable morning in Uttar Pradesh

My middle school was named after Jonas Salk – and all I heard about when I was going to school there was how he developed the vaccine that eradicated polio. Years later when I was at the UN, I remember seeing a clock in the lobby of the UN building counting down the eradication of polio throughout the world based on the number of vaccinations administered, and realized how little of the story of polio I had been told about as a child.

Rotary International funds a program whereby the oral polio vaccine (much cheaper to administer than the injection) is administered once a month in the areas in India most plagued by polio, including the state of Uttar Pradesh. So one Sunday in September, I had a chance to travel to Uttar Pradesh with some of the other fellows to a Muslim town in UP where stalls were set up on the street to administer the oral vaccine to children under the age of 5. In order to fully eradicate the disease in a community, every child under the age of 5 must be fully vaccinated. Unfortunately, similar to the reception anti-retroviral drugs have received in many parts of Africa, there are some in these Muslim communities who believe the polio vaccine is a conspiracy of Hindus trying to wipe out Muslim men in India. As a result, some families will hide their sons on vaccination days, but allow their daughters to get vaccinated. A weird twist of events given that the trend in India is female infanticide. The volunteers of this program, thus, vigorously focus their efforts in these communities, both by setting up these stalls and by going door to door to make sure as many children are covered as possible.

I had the incredible opportunity to actually place two drops of the oral polio vaccine into a little boy’s mouth. (He was not very happy about it!) Our being there did cause quite a stir in the neighborhood with all the children wanting to have their pictures taken on our digital cameras. Normally, I hate making a spectacle of myself in a foreign country, but this was one time I didn’t mind, as it drew more children to the stalls!

The angels and elite of Delhi

The first two weeks of my fellowship were spent in Delhi, as part of an orientation program set up by AIF. We spent our days listening to different speakers from various parts of Indian society, including representatives from NGOs (non-governmental organizations) working on development, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, a journalist, a feminist publisher, the director of the National Gallery of Modern Art (who gave us a private tour of the gallery!*) and the list goes on. The diversity of India is truly reflected in the endless layers of political, economic and social issues the country deals with on a day to day basis. Our speakers exposed us to the wide range of problems facing India and at the same time, shared with us some truly inspiration stories about what they have accomplished for this country. From improving the livelihoods of bicycle rickshaw-pullers to uncovering a World Bank scheme to make water harder to access in Delhi in order to benefit an American corporation to publishing a book on women’s health created by poor, rural women to educate themselves and others, the people who work for these NGOs are no less than angels. Each day I was inspired to continue on my chosen career path and at the same time reminded about how frustrating and difficult that path would be.

However, beyond the formal presentations of orientation, I had the wonderful opportunity to learn from the 28 fellows joining me on this program. Given that we all come from different backgrounds (law, health, education, social work, finance, etc.), but share one common passion—to be a part of the social development of India, the discussions that would arise among us after each lecture were great learning opportunities on their own.

There were some other prominent and inspiring people that we met who sit on the AIF board of directors. I’ll refrain from going into detail of who they all are here, but there was one person I met worth noting for you fellow Bollywood fans out there: the owner of the production company that produced films like Saathiya and Mangal Pandey! Sadly, my lifelong dream to be recruited for a Bollywood film was not fulfilled that night…

* We were invited by the Director of the National Gallery of Modern Art to visit the gallery after hours and attend a private lecture about Indian classical and contemporary art by him and Anjolie Ela Menon, a renowned Indian artist. Given that the kind of Indian art that is usually displayed in museums in the West, I hadn’t realized how very much alive the Indian contemporary art scene is. If only such pieces had more prominence in the West would some of the exotification of India die down – Indian art is not just about ancient carvings, Hindu gods and the Kama Sutra...