Clerics support polio programme

LUCKNOW: Several Islamic clerics in UP are coming together to educate Muslims on the necessity of vaccinating against polio, a crippling disease on the rise among children belonging to the community.

Lucknow’s maulanas (clerics) met on Monday under the aegis of the Rotary International and have volunteered to join the vaccination teams, which face Muslim resistance in several places.

The clerics said they would visit villages during the drive to inform people about the vaccine’s safety. A seven-member executive panel and 17-member working team of ulemas was constituted to review the polio vaccination drive in UP, which accounts for 438 polio cases — the highest in the country.

“We will go with the vaccination teams to those areas where Muslim families are unwilling to let their kids take polio drops,” the imam of Lucknow’s Eidgah, Khalid Rasheed, said. Rasheed, also the chairperson of the Ulema Council of India, said, “We are going to urge the government to take interest in ensuring  health amenities in areas where they were carrying out the anti-polio drive.”

“We have come together to fight polio since a majority cases are among Muslim children,” he said.