Polio worker beaten up after insisting on administering polio drops

A heated exchange broke out after parents refused to allow a polio worker to administer drops to their child


Akbar Bajwa October 22, 2014

LAHORE: A female polio worker was beaten up in Lahore on Wednesday after she insisted on administering polio drops to a child whose family refused to go ahead with the immunisation. 

According to police, a polio team comprising two female and a male worker were administering polio drops in the area, when in Taqi Mohalla area a child’s parents refused to let their child be given the drops.

A female polio worker, Rukhsana Shehzad, tried to argue with the child’s family, leading to a squabble between them.

After a heated verbal exchange. two men in the house namely Farooq and Dilavaiz started threatening the polio team and asked them to leave. Upon the polio team’s refusal to leave, the men beat up Rukhsana and forced others to leave.

Police arrested the accused after an FIR was registered against them.

COMMENTS (6)

Karim Khan | 9 years ago | Reply

It's wrong to beat someone especially a female in Pakistani culture. But who gave the polio worker the right to insist on vaccinating the child when her family refused? Was the polio worker trying to force the vaccine on the child? If so, then I don't blame the family for protecting their child. These children are not WHO or state property. When their parents decide to refuse vaccination, they have full right to it and polio teams have no right to insist.

No | 9 years ago | Reply

You can't force any one to take any medicine, it's their fundamental right to self determine. The polio team should have left. Make no mistake, my reasoning does not justify the reaction of the residents. They got rightly arrested for taking it upon themselves to get into a fight.

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