The pulse ignites many audacious dreams

Yesterday morning had a particularly happy start as we stared at 'beautiful faces with no cares in the world'. This was a room full of young, gurgling babies and joyful children. It was a pleasure watching these little ones. Some of their mothers had placed a black spot to ward off evil, while others had made them wear silver anklets or bangles with black beads, with most having black Kohl in their eyes. One little boy wore a smart kurta-pyjama with a cute coat, while the little girls wore dresses in pink and other bright colours, their hair tied in pigtails and ponytails.

The atmosphere in the room of babied gathered for taking OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) was filled with cheer and bonhomie, as they cooed, giggled and did baby talk. Within a few minutes, as the OPV administration started, I realised how this path-breaking campaign strategy had come to be totally accepted. Mobilising the parents and children was quite easy now. There were only a few babies that cried or even protested when the vaccine was dropped in the mouth.

As I witnessed the pulse polio drive this time, I felt happy that this massive campaign started in 1995 has now really come of age. The campaign was designed and rolled out with a four-pronged strategy of carrying out the campaign in one big sweep or 'pulse' with provision for mop-up. This has slowly gotten institutionalised into routine immunisation, with active surveillance for acute flaccid paralysis. But when this strategy was chalked out in 1995, it was dismissed by many critics as a bizarre thought which lacked practicality and doability.

It seemed like an audacious dream, which really required high precision, rigour, and seriousness. It also needed the complete involvement and participation of communities, mobilisation of stakeholders and all health functionaries from top to bottom.

It also needed other allied sectors of the government to be roped in for full support. It was to be a mammoth gigantic exercise that would cover the entire breadth and length of the country, at one time or one 'pulse' to bring in what was known as herd immunity for the community, 'driving out' the polio disease.

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared India a polio-free country in 2014, Bill Gates famously said that 'the eradication of polio is a triumph for India's people and government.' Many like Bill Gates have even lauded this as the 'world's greatest health achievement.' India became polio-free then, and the Pulse Polio Campaign is now continued to ensure that this herd immunity is sustained.

While we got the breakthroughs we wanted in polio, the real 'prized breakthrough' is the success of this pulse polio 'strategem'.

It leveraged and increased the faith and self-confidence of the entire nation in its own ability to deliver programs of this scale. It demonstrated unequivocally that perseverance, with the single-mindedness of purpose, surely gives desired outcomes.

It made collaborative efforts with all stakeholders possible and actually built and sharpened the capabilities of our functionaries and communities.

Armed with the fantastic success of this mission, we are now inspired to have and realise even more audacious dreams and missions. The dream of having an Open Defecation Free India is one such instance, which is at the brink of fulfilment. Similarly, if we were to really decide to have an anaemia-free country, leprosy-free, malaria-free or a TB-free or HIV-AIDS-free nation, a corruption-free India, a malnutrition-free country or boldly eradicate the scourges of hunger, poverty, violence and inequality, too, these may not be impossible missions.

The last mother carrying her baby smiled at me, after receiving the polio drop, and the baby too looked at me and gave a gummy smile. I looked into all the possibilities that this campaign has unleashed and my 'heart and being' smiled at the immense world of audacious possibilities for India and the world that this great campaign had unleashed.

The author is a Harvard-educated civil servant & writer, and has worked in the education sector 
jayanti.ravi.dna@gmail.com