Dear Rotary Leaders,
It gives me immense pleasure to share with you all the success of the Rotary’s Muslim Ulema Committee in making the Muslim population as much a beneficiary of the PolioPlus campaign as any the other populace in the country. At present Muslim children accounts for just 30% of the total number of children affected by Polio which earlier used to be 70%. In fact Rotary has been complimented by Partners and Experts on the success of the Mulsim Ulema Committee with suggestions for repeating this success in Bihar and other endemic countries as well.
Today due to the success of the Rotary Muslim Ulema Committee in the State of U.P., the Committee has been expanding its sphere of influence beyond by constituting such Committees in all the districts of the State in order to involve and enlist the support of Muslim clerics and scholars at the district levels too for a wider outreach. In this regard a meeting was organized by India National PolioPlus Committee for Ulemas from the seven districts of western U.P. - Bareilly, J.P. Nagar, Shajahanpur, Rampur, Badaun, Pilibhit and Moradabad - on July 19 in Moradabad. This was in continuation of the District chapters for U.P Muslim Ulema Committee that was successfully concluded in Ghaziabad in March and in Agra last month.
Around 60 Muslim religious leaders and scholars belonging to different Islamic sects from these districts attended the Meet. Along with four Muslim executive members of the Ulema Committee, I was joined at the meeting by INPPC Chairman Deepak Kapur, NCM Sudhir Gupta, DG 3100 Yogesh M. Gupta, Inner Wheel Chairman 310 Smt. Manju Gupta, DGN Rakesh Rastogi, NCM Ajay Saxena and Rotarians of RI
District 3100.
This meeting just as the previous two, lived up to our expectation and many revered Muslim clerics in the region turned up to discuss the importance of eradicating Polio from their population and their region. The ideas that could work at the local levels were deliberated upon and suggestions were made for consideration of the government for implementation so as to ensure the support of the marginalized sections. The level of support from the administration, Rotary and Partners in getting their efforts in eradication, which was crucial to the success of this Committee, was also discussed. Director, Maternal and Child Health, Govt. of U.P., Mr. S.K Jain and Additional Director, H & FW, Moradabad, Smt. Kalyani Gupta and Commissioner IAS Moradabad, Shri Umadhar Drivedi appreciated the role played by Ulema Committee and Rotary. Shri Drivedi said, “Moradabad was earlier known as the epicenter of Polio virus but today thanks to the strong efforts and advocacy of Rotary’s Muslim Ulema Committee, there are hardly any cases.”
All participating Ulemas when asked to put forth their views acknowledged and expressed their appreciation of Rotary’s and Senior Muslim Ulemas for carrying the noble effort of eradicating Polio disease from their community and the country. A participant, Janab Masud Hassan from Shajahanpur said “ In 60 years of independence there has been no programme like the Polio eradication campaign. Today we see dirty Politics everywhere but Polio programme is devoid of any politics and is only for the betterment of our children, our community .”
A press conference that followed the Meet and participated by almost all local dailies was well received. The event was covered by many electronic channels and also covered the next day in all the newspapers.
There are two more such District meetings planned for the districts in central U.P and northern U.P belt. And we are hopeful that they will be as successful and meet our expectations of making the minority community an equal participant in the Polio campaign.
We assure you all of INPPC’s sincere efforts and Ulema Committee’s commitment in achieving the goal of Polio eradication.
With warm regards,
Affectionately yours in Rotary,
Ashok Mahajan
Director – Rotary International