International Women’s Day
7 March, 2012 – Out there in the world right now, there is a dedicated, yet largely unacknowledged, army of women devoted to ensuring that polio is eradicated. Dressed in uniforms of fluttering burkhas in vivid sky blue or sober black, jewel tone saris or vibrant African prints, these women travel from door to door, talking to families, giving vaccine – protecting children against polio.
In many countries, a vaccination team cannot function without a female vaccinator. In conservative areas, having a woman on the team can mean the difference between a closed door or a welcoming invitation into the home. In northern Pakistan, in Afghanistan or northern India, the sight of burkha-clad women tramping through the alleys with their clipboards, vaccinating children and recording coverage is a heartening signal of how these women and their communities value the health of their children.
As they can speak woman-to-woman, mother to mother or grandmother to mother, female vaccinators can hold a great degree of sway. By showing that they are willing to have their own children vaccinated against polio, vaccinators who are also mothers demonstrate to wary parents that they have the children’s best interests at heart. And in parts of Nigeria, where the wise words of older women are respected, the inclusion of senior women in vaccination teams is having a positive effect on the number of parents who want their children to be vaccinated.
For these reasons, women are valued members of polio vaccination teams. But for the women involved, it can also become a unique opportunity to have a voice in their community, and to find professional fulfillment through something beyond their role as wife and mother.
In India alone, it is estimated that a staggering 80 - 85% of the 2.3 million vaccinators involved during each round of National Immunization Days are female workers - this includes Auxiliary Nurse Midwives, Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHAs, frontline workers of the social welfare department (Anganwadi workers) and volunteers. In addition, approximately 60-70% of the nearly 155,000 supervisors that oversee the work of these vaccinators are female. In the last two states to have been polio-endemic – Bihar and Uttar Pradesh – more than 92% of the 128,000 vaccination teams have at least one female vaccinator as a team-member.
So on 8 March, as the world celebrates International Women’s Day, let us take some time to think of these remarkable women and the work they are doing to ensure that children everywhere are safe from the threat of polio.