11,000 polio workers lose jobs due to funding cuts

Islamabad - Most of those laid off are women workers performing duties in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

At least 11,000 health care workers, who were also mobilised to fight coronavirus, have lost their jobs in Pakistan since June due to the restructuring and funding cuts of the anti-polio programme.

Majority of those laid off are women who were performing their duties in the provinces of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Arab News reported citing Rana Mohammed Safdar, coordinator for the country's National Emergency Operation Centre for polio eradication.

So far, Pakistan has reported 64 poliovirus cases this year, with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa recording the highest number 22 followed by Sindh (21).

The decision to reduce the polio staff was made late last year, Safdar said.

During a review in Islamabad, attended by former special assistant to the prime minister on health Dr Zafar Mirza, it was decided to change the approach of the campaign and the working modalities of the on-ground teams.

Earlier, health care workers would be employed for the entire month and paid up to Rs25,000.

"The nature of employment is now changed," Safdar explained. Under new rules, lady health care workers are only hired for 10 days in parts of Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and paid a daily amount, rather than for the whole month.

Pakistan had recorded its first case of novel coronavirus on February 26. As the caseload increased, door-to-door polio immunisation campaigns were suspended in March, only to resume on a smaller scale in July.

Meanwhile, the country will launch a sub-national polio eradication campaign this week to vaccinate 34 million children under the age of five in 130 districts, according to the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme.

The campaign will start from August 13 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, August 15 in Punjab and Sindh, and August 17 in Balochistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

The move follows the successful resumption of anti-polio activities in July 2020 after a four-month suspension due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Vaccinators will go door-to-door to administer the oral polio vaccine (OPV) to children under the age of five as well as vitamin-A supplements to children who are between 6-59 months of age.

• Pakistan