Mobilzation Mitras

CGPP Project India | 15 Jan 2024

Recently, 46-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 (MMs), a group of CORE Group Partners Project (#CGPP) volunteers who assist the project in vaccination and social mobilization. Durings his time in Meerut, Madan interacted with Mustakim and Shaista, along with their 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,” Madan said. “But I persisted and talked to their neighbors who told me that Mustakim himself was afflicted with polio, and little Aleema had been born with a twisted leg.” 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 Shaista, his 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 words opened a closed door, and his actions proved over and over again that he cared about the family. As a result, the family decided to vaccinate all six children and motivated 15 other neighborhood families to get vaccinated as well. “Now I am almost a member of the family and am welcome in the area,” Madan said. “These incidents where we go beyond the call of duty, gaining the trust of these so-called resistant families, are what makes my job worthwhile,” Madan explained.