Monday 29 January 2018

Follow-Up Day in Kolkata

For us, follow up day was to be spent in and around the Dhakuria Railway Colony which is a very mixed area in the south of Kolkata 

Street Scene

where some people live in houses and flats

Checking railway Track

and many more live in squatter huts or alongside the railway track. Some people there are relatively wealthy and others are abjectly poor.

There is an short article in the Huffington Post about the colony here which will provide some useful background if you do not know anything about it and a Youtube video above which provides rather a long view of the area.

Kolkata has a interesting history. From the days of the East India Company through until 1911, it used to be the capital of India and hence it had a large British garrison (some of my family were born there). Roll forwards to recent times and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were the ruling party in West Bengal.

Meeting local politicians

Local politicians are very important and hence just before the start of our follow-up we met the ward councillor for the Colony and she decided to accompany us as we worked our way around the colony checking fingers and she was very effective and well known and would not accept any excuses from those whose children had not been vaccinated.

Has your son been vaccinated

Polio is primarily spread through faecal contamination and India has been increasing the number of public and private toilets available to its population in an attempt to improve sanitary conditions. 

Public Toilet

This public toilet was on the edge of the area we were checking (and there are some 350 others in the city) but unlike many places elsewhere in India, here it was "pay to use” and hence we did not see many people using it.

Polio Teddy

There was some, but not a lot of publicity material around telling people to get their children vaccinated. The growing role of government in the vaccination process is perhaps indicated on this poster by including a photograph on it of Mamata Banerjee who is the Chief Minister of West Bengal - a photograph we were to see on most Polio advertising.

Checking if vaccinated

Checking involves going around where the children are,

Checking in street

be it with their parents at work, 

Checking Finger

or in the street,

Into the slum

up alleyways,

Checking on Track

or on the railway track 

David Ward Checking Finger

and looking at the little finger of their left hand for the purple mark.

Children showing finger 001

Some children know what to do and you only have to waggle your little finger at them and they will respond.

Marking finger

And if they are not vaccinated

Robert Vaccinating

then they are immediately given their two drops of vaccine.

Vaccine through the market

The vaccine is, as always, carried in insulated thermos boxes because it must be kept at a low temperature in order to remain effective.

Vaccinated

We came across one child trying to wash the mark off his hand

Vaccinated finger

because word had rapidly spread that if he was vaccinated by us, he might get a small present.

Dhakuria Railway Sign

Railway station

Working on the railway track was an unusual experience.

Selling on the track

Many people had set up “shop” adjacent to the track and were just that extra millimetre away from the track to avoid being hit when a train went past.

Living on the tracks

Railway Track Checking 2

People also live in huts adjacent to the track

Railway Track Checking 3

Working on the tracks

and the track was live with trains frequently passing (slowly).

Where railway live

We soon learnt to get out the way and carry on checking on the other side of the track.

Track market

Happy

As is always the case, we were welcomed in a friendly way by everyone we met and this child had quickly got over being vaccinated by me.

House Checked Sign

“Houses" were marked up in chalk as usual showing that they had been checked (Team 59 checked this house on the 29th January 2018 and it passed - i.e. the children supposed to be living in it were inspected and found to be vaccinated).

It was a very interesting place to work and we found that the usual thoroughness of the Indian Vaccination process was as obvious here as it has been elsewhere - most children had the required blue finger. 

Across the River

That thoroughness was demonstrated the following day when

Hoogly Ferry

we went on a ferry across the Hoogly River to the other side of town

CheckingTwo Checkers  

and found Health workers working on the landing stage looking for evidence of vaccination on all children who went past.

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