
At the very least, it would be appropriate to pay these brave men and women in a timely manner, but true to bad form, anti-polio workers in Balochistan have not been paid for four months. Balochistan is something of a success story in terms of polio prevention and has been polio free for 14 months, a goal only achieved by maintaining the programme of prevention. Just because there has been no case for 14 months does not mean that the danger has passed; the campaign has to continue. There are 914 teams of vaccinators in Balochistan, and half their Rs500 a day salary is paid by the WHO, the other half by the provincial health department. There have been four campaigns recently run by the WHO and the government and it is time to pay those who risk all to produce the positive result that they have. As to why they have not been paid, there is the usual fog of mystery and the complaints of the unpaid workers appear to fall on deaf ears.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 17th, 2014.
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