Muslim parents attack school staff, call vaccination a ‘ploy’

More than 50 parents of Muslim students came out to protest school authorities in Karnataka, alleging that the ongoing Measles-Rubella (MR) vaccination drive was a conspiracy against the community, the Deccan Herald newspaper reported, on Tuesday.

It was reported that parents barged into Shams English Medium School at Hebale Jamiabad to assault the doctors and teachers. The area Tehsildar VN Badarkar, who tried to convince the parents was also verbally abused.

Parents alleged that the vaccination drive was a “conspiracy by the Union government and the RSS to control the Muslim population.” No police complaint has been registered regarding the incident so far.

“The vaccination was compulsory for all students as part of a nationwide drive. More than 16,000 Hindu students have been vaccinated so far. The efforts to convince the Muslim community members was done to clear their misconceptions,” Badarkar told Deccan Herald.

India has launched one of world’s largest vaccination campaign against measles — a major childhood killer disease, and congenital rubella syndrome (CRS) — responsible for causing causes birth defects such as irreversible deafness and blindness in nearly 40,000 children every year.

In this campaign the rubella vaccine was introduced in India’s childhood immunisation programme to address CRS.