Japanese Encephalitis is a deadly disease that is transmitted via mosquitoes during the peak monsoon season. The virus usually attacks children below the age of 15 and is deadly for children below the age 5. The disease is such that even if the kid survives it, there is a 30-50% chances the virus will cause permanent damage to the brain and the kid will be left with partial paralysis or seizures or speech problems or cognitive disabilities for the rest of his life.
So, If you were to be given a choice between getting inoculated for Japanese Encephalitis or be always at the risk of it just because you believe in grapevine, the choice would be the former one obviously.
However Some pious Muslims prefer the latter laughably. In Assam, parents of Muslim kids took away their kids when they came to know that the supposedly Hindu state government wants to inoculate their kids and sterilize them in the process covertly. This sadly is the level of sensitivity towards the deadly disease when it has been hogging the limelight in Uttar Pradesh due to the death of infants in the medical college of Gorakhpur.
On Tuesday in Assam, almost all the Muslim kids were taken away by their parents during the school hours in Natbaoma Lower Primary School,Hemanta Boruaha Middle English School,Hemanta Boruaha High School all located in the Muslim dominated Hatiagaon area of Guwahati when they came to know that state authorities are coming to administer vaccines against Japanese Encephalitis to their wards. The school authorities tried to convince the parents but their plea fell of deaf ears. They did not let their kids get innoculated by the supposed ‘RSS vaccine‘ which aims to control the fertility of Muslims.
Something similar was witnessed in Jharkhand when Auxiliary Mid Wives and Rural Health Workers were thrashed by Muslims in Muslim populated areas of Bokaro and Dhanbad. The reason for resistance to the vaccination against Japanese Encephalitis again being the same ie the ploy to check the fertility of Muslims by sterilizing the Muslim kids. Similar problems had occured in the last rounds of polio immunization in Garhwa district as well.
The Muslim community must understand that they are not helping in the fight against the killer diseases of Japanese Encephalitis and polio by throwing such tantrums or believing in baseless rumors.
Even a single child who stays out of the protective cover of immunization will betray the efforts of the state and the rest of the community. They must understand that there are better things for the state and the central governments than to selectively sterilize the Muslim kids across the country. As such Population Explosion is not doing any good to the country and such adamant stance against immunization is tantamount to cheating their own kids. Muslims Parents must help in checking the disease, This is the least that can be expected out of any community of India.
Another aspect of it is that, Such activities won’t let the integration of the Muslim community in the mainstream as those who would opt for immunization would keep on seeing the Muslims who resist the immunization with a stigma. It is high time that Muslims stop falling prey to rumors, subsume a bit, and stop seeing everything as a BJP or RSS conspiracy because that’s exactly what the (Pseudo) Secular Politicians of this country want.
