INDIA

Forty-six-year-old Madan lal was visiting a village in Meerut District, an area notorious for reporting high numbers of households refusing the polio vaccination. Madan is one of over 400 mobilization mitras, a group of CGPP volunteers who assist the project in vaccination and social mobilization. Durings his time in Meerut, Madan called on a family with six unvaccinated children. Aleema, the youngest, was born three days prior. “When I met Aleema’s parents for the first time, they slammed the door in my face and refused to listen to me. But I persisted and talked to their neighbors who told me that Aleema’s father, Mustakim, was afflicted with polio and little Aleema had been born with a twisted leg,” Madan said. Undeterred, Madan approached Mustakim and asked him why he was condemning his little daughter to a life where she would not be able to walk properly or attend school. “Mustakim remained adamant and said that what had happened to him and to Aleema was God’s will, and he was resigned to the fact that she too would be crippled for life,” Madan recounted. “I told him, ‘Maybe it was Allah that had sent me to your house because he knew that Aleema needed help.’ I also spoke to Mustakim’s mother and wife, and told the family members to think about it overnight.” When Madan visited the family again the next morning, the family was willing to take Aleema to seek medical treatment. Madan accompanied the family to the overcrowded health facility and waited for hours to be seen with them. Aleema was treated for clubfoot, and the doctor told the family that they arrived just in time for the bones to be corrected. The next day, Madan brought the family pain relievers to make Aleema more comfortable.

Madan’s story is one of countless successes experienced throughout the two decades of work the project has accomplished in India. CGPP India officially began in 1999, with field operations starting in 2000. Serving as the secretariat director since CGPP’s inception, Dr. Roma Solomon retired in 2023. Jitendra Awale, who served as the deputy director from 2004, was appointed secretariat director upon Dr. Roma’s retirement. Jitendra has been a critical member of the CGPP family providing capacity building and technical leadership to engage CGPP work in India and beyond.

In 2009, India reported 741 polio cases – more than any other country in the world. By 2010, India slashed its reported cases to 42, just a small proportion of the 1,352 global cases. In a truly remarkable accomplishment, India completed 2012 without a single case of wild poliovirus. The country was certified polio-free in March 2014. Sustaining community participation for polio vaccination after achieving polio-free status is an immense challenge. Today, CGPP India supports large-scale vaccination campaigns, ensures robust disease surveillance systems, and readies with response plans for potential outbreaks. A highly committed field staff continues to maintain high levels of oral polio virus coverage during supplementary immunization activities and routine immunization.

In FY23, through the 756 volunteers deployed, CGPP monitored a total of 10,524 routine immunization sessions in CGPP work areas and held trainings with a total of 9,274 participants on polio, vaccine-preventable diseases, COVID-19 appropriate behaviors, and refreshed their skills on data and reporting tools. During a polio supplementary immunization activity in May, CGPP supported the vaccination of 178,154 children under 5. This year, the project areas had a non-polio acute flaccid paralysis rate of 5.7 per 100,000 children under 15 years compared to the state average of 4.7. Nine of 67 non-polio acute flaccid paralysis cases (13.4%) were reported by CGPP mobilizers/staff. CGPP work districts maintained an adequate stool collection rate of 88.4 percent.

Secretariat Host Organization

Project Concern International (PCI)

Implementation Partners

CGPP India is implemented through Adventist Development and Relief Association, Catholic Relief Services, and Project Concern International as well as seven localized community-based NGOs: Adventist Development and Relief Association India, Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, Meerut Seva Samaj, Sarathi Development Foundation, People’s Action for National Integration, Jan Kalyan Samiti, and Society for All Round Development.