Taking a stand: LHWs to continue boycott of polio drive

CHARSADDA:

Around 15,000 lady health workers (LHWs) will continue their boycott of the polio vaccination drive across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) until their demands are fulfilled.

In a news conference at Charsadda Press Club on Tuesday, LHW K-P Chairperson Saeeda Feroz said the government is not obeying the orders of Supreme Court of Pakistan and has still not paid them their due salaries. She maintained this is why they have chosen to opt out of the polio drive.

Flanked by LHW General Secretary Sameena Naeem along with a large number of LHWs, Feroz said they have been pushed to perform the high-risk job and are vulnerable to attacks across the province. “It is not a mere protest, but a big blow to the polio vaccination drive in this part of the country, which will affect the immunisation of five million children in K-P,” she added.



Feroz criticised the government, saying they have refused to regularise 15,000 LHWs. She also said Minister for Health Shaukat Yousafzai did not heed their demands, despite a meeting held with him recently. “The LHWs will go to any length for the provision of our rights,” Feroz stressed.

The LHW chairperson went on to say they had not been paid for the past four months. “International donors are least bothered to redress our long standing concerns, and are playing the role of spectators in their fortified offices,” she said.

“We have put our lives in danger only for an Rs8,000 salary,” shared Feroz, also highlighting the pivotal role LHWs have played in running the vaccination drive. “Most of our workers are deputed in areas outside their native districts and it is a big threat to their lives, however, the health department has even refused to pay a travel allowance.”

Published in The Express Tribune, November 6^th,2013.