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Malegaon:
For once, the Malegaonians - supposedly the most religious people
in Maharashtra, were reluctant to allow polio vaccines to their
children. They relented a bit after the government, backed by the
campaign run by local clerics, reassured them about its need and
advantages. Malegaon’s Health Officer however is volunteering a
new job to convince the local lot about the immunisation campaign
run by the government to eradicate the deadly disease.
Dr. Bharat Wagh, the local Health Officer, is issuing around 200
certificates every day to the people to confirm their identities -
mandatory for getting the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) Aadhar. While speaking to ummid.com he says, it all began
when a corporator few months ago came to him and requested to sign
a certificate stating that he knew the person and that the person
was a native of Malegaon.
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Dr. Bharat Wagh, the local Health Officer, is issuing around 200
certificates every day to the people to confirm their identities -
mandatory for getting the Unique Identification Authority of India
(UIDAI) Aadhar. |
“Soon it became a routine. People from far away places would come
to me with the request to sign their certificates. Since I have
served in Malegaon in various capacities for more than fifteen
years, it is not a problem for me to recognise them”, he says.
However it is this incident which motivated him to issue the
certificates to more and more people. “On a polio vaccination
drive one day, we were visiting a high risk area where a woman
after spotting me requested to sign her son’s certificate. I
signed but not before taking the pledge from her to support us in
the polio vaccination drive”, recalls Dr Wagh.
The incident had occurred in Devi ka Malla and Abbas Nagar areas
of Malegaon where two of the four polio cases were detected in August 2010.
Various attempts by top officers including those from the World
Health Organisation (WHO) had failed to convince the people about
the anti-polio drive.
“However, the small favor I did to the woman helped us a lot and
we could succeed in doing 99% vaccination in the area which was in
the news ever since the detection of the two polio cases”, says Dr
Wagh.
Dr Wagh has so far signed more than 50,000 certificates and the
number is increasing with every passing day. Impressed by his
extraordinary efforts, the organisers of the Malegaon Mahotsav
2012 felicitated him on January 08 with an award. But more than
the award, it is the affection of the people that keeps him
motivated.
“Few days back a woman came in the corporation asking for me. She
had come walking from far end of the city to get her certificates
signed. She said that since it was difficult for her to remember
your name, she told her son to write it on his palm. I was so
moved by her gesture that I could not stop myself from capturing
the image in my cellphone”, Dr Wagh says while showing the
snapshot of his name written on the palm of the little kid.
An edited version of
the above article appeared in
The Times of India Mumbai/Nashik edition on
January 12, 2012
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