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Almost 95 percent of people in the community are illiterate and poor. They don\'t understand our language and it was very difficult to make them understand the benefits of polio vaccination,\
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Four months back we selected five men from the community and trained them as underserved community mobilisation coordinators (CMC) to spread awareness about the disease within their community.\
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We found that children of the Musahar community were left out in the polio immunisation drive as polio workers used to avoid visiting them due to their being Maha Dalits, the poorest Dalits,\
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They were not educated and it was useless trying to make them understand the gravity of the situation through facts and figures. We made posters, street plays and games to communicate with them,\
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Every month before the polio immunisation round, we go from house-to-house asking people, especially mothers, to get their children vaccinated. We had conducted several meetings, informing mothers about the disease and the need for vaccination.\
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The Musahar women are shy and they don\'t open up easily and it took us some time to counsel them. Now, the majority know about polio and they don\'t refuse to get their children immunised, which was not the case before,\
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We prepare a list of children below five years, newborn who are born after the last immunisation round, mark houses, take out rallies, counsel mothers before the polio round. And post immunisation we have to track the children who did not take the vaccine for various reasons like either they were not at...
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Every month I ensure my children take the vaccine as it is beneficial for them and will prevent them from being handicapped,\
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The women from the community now come for the mothers\' meetings held before the monthly immunization round. We tell them the importance of sanitation and cleanliness to prevent the spread of virus among children.\
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Accessibility is the biggest challenge in eradicating polio in areas in the embankment of Kosi river. These areas are flooded for four months a year and movement is possible only through boats, horses and motorbikes. At times it taken hours to travel to a small hamlet to deliver polio vaccine,\
