Speeches :
Speech for RI Director Ashok Mahajan
(NOPM, August 8th – Concluding Session)
MUSLIM ULEMA COMMITTEE & ROLE OF OTHER RELIGIOUS LEADERS
Friends,
I had mentioned in my presentation yesterday that a perceptible change has come about in the response of the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh to immunization of their children against Polio.
This happened after Rotary took the initiative, two years ago, to organize the biggest ever conclave in New Delhi of eminent religious leaders and scholars, representing different sects of the Muslim community, to discuss the polio situation and the need for engaging the Muslim community leadership in the eradication campaign.
This meeting was hailed as a major private health initiative in India which gave an opportunity to the religious heads and scholars of the community to assemble under one platform and discuss threadbare the causes of greater incidence of polio in the Muslim Community and the viable eradication measures which could be adopted to make the Polio vaccine acceptable by the minority community.
Muslim
religious leaders and the media both lauded Rotary’s efforts in this direction
and expressed the hope that such initiatives by Rotary had the potential of
strengthening overall preventive health services in the country.
The idea of forming a permanent set-up in the form of the Rotary International’s Muslim Ulema Committee with a proper secretariat was the logical offshoot of this conclave. I was given the honour of chairing this Committee which is composed of very learned and highly respected Muslim Ulemas and scholars.
The Ulema Committee, I must say with a sense of satisfaction, has played a significant role in bringing about a metamorphosis in the mindset of our Muslim brethren and successfully persuaded the hitherto resistant and unwilling sections of the community to accept the oral polio vaccine for their children.
The revered leaders did not stop at issuing appeals only but personally administered Polio vaccine drops to their own children in order to convince the people that the vaccine was harmless.
The results of our work with the religious leaders on the Committee have indeed been remarkable. In 2007, before much of the resistance had been quelled, Muslims accounted for 71 per cent of Polio cases. By the end of July this year, it had fallen to just 30 per cent.
After the success of the Muslim Ulema Committee’s campaign in the State of U.P., the Committee felt the need of expanding its sphere of influence beyond by constituting such Committees in all the districts of the State in order to involve and enlist the support of Muslim clerics and scholars at the district levels too for a wider outreach.
Accordingly, District Ulema Committees were constituted in all the districts. The first Meet of the District Ulema Committee was organized in Ghaziabad on March 27 this year in which nearly 70 Muslim religious leaders and scholars from eight Western U.P. districts participated.
Continuing with the series, the second District Ulema Committee Meet was successfully organized at Agra on May 24. It covered as many as 16 districts of central U.P. and 120 Ulemas attended this Meet. The recent and the third was held in Moradabad for the western U.P districts in July 19 with the participation of 60 Ulemas from 7 districts.
The Meets discussed the need for eradicating Polio not only from the Muslim population but also from the country as a whole. The ideas that could work at the local levels were deliberated upon and suggestions made for consideration of the government for implementation in order to enjoy the support of the marginalized sections. Representatives from each district spoke about their respective problems and committed themselves to fully support the Pulse Polio programme.
These District Meets have really been enlightening for the participants everywhere and have generated a new enthusiasm in the Muslim religious leaders who have now become an integral part of a mass movement and are creating waves in the Muslim community in favour of not only Polio immunization but other health needs as well.
Rotary volunteers and observers from abroad who visit India to watch and actively participate in the Pulse Polio immunization drives in U.P. and Bihar are so excited about the success of Rotary’s work with the Muslim Ulemas that they have advised other Polio endemic countries to replicate the Indian experiment.
It is heartening to inform you that during the meeting of India Expert Advisory Group (IEAG) held on 28th May 2008 in Delhi, Ms. Ann Haffelbalch, Dy. Director, Operations, UNICEF and Mr. Michael Galway, Chief, Programme Communications, UNICEF appreciated the efforts of Rotary’s Ulema Committee and also endorsed that “the reverse trend of Polio cases in the Muslim community is due to this Committee only”. You feel happy and satisfied when a third party compliments your efforts.
Role of other Religious Leaders:
With the number of cases in the Muslim community showing a declining trend, thanks to the efforts put in by the Muslim Ulema Committee, the number of cases in the Hindu community has now started showing an upward trend.
Since religious heads in every community exercise an important influence in moulding the people’s opinion, Rotary has from time to time been enlisting support from influential religious leaders from different
religions and invited them to address Rotary meetings and issue appeals to the people to support Pulse Polio immunization.
On April 23 this year, Rotary Club of Kashipur in Uttarakhand very thoughtfully took the initiative of organizing a Sarvadharma Sammellan with revered figures of different religions.
The religious leaders deliberated on the importance of Polio immunization and agreed to explain its need and urgency to the people belonging to their respective faiths.
This was not the first time a Sarvadharma gathering was convened and definitely not the last. I think such Sarvadharma Sammelans must be organized more frequently in UP and Bihar and other States where Polio cases occur.
In conclusion, I will like to thank the Muslim Ulemas who have made it possible for Rotary to make Muslim community as much a beneficiary of the PolioPlus Campaign as the other populace. I would also like to extend the same commitment and my sincere efforts n getting other religious leaders to join Rotary in making eradication possible.
‘Inshaallah’ we will make this possible.
Thank you.
r/23.07.08
Copyright (c)2011 Ashokmahajan.com
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