Authorities now bribing parents for polio vaccination in Pakistan

ERNEST DEMPSEY digitaljournal.com Peshawar - After using scare tactics at places, authorities in Pakistan are moving to bribe parents for vaccinating their children with the questionable oral polio vaccine (OPV). The politics of polio vaccination in Pakistan is seeing new and interesting turns every now and then. The latest move in this connection is the decision of the authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province to pay parents who let their children be vaccinated for polio and other diseases, as reported on The Guardian. Parents will be offered 1000 rupees, or around $10, for vaccinating each newborn child. “It is the first time the country has resorted to monetary incentives, which are rarely used around the world,” wrote the paper. The move comes a month after authorities ordered the arrest of parents in the Sindh province in case they refused to vaccinate their child for polio during a 3-day district-wide vaccination campaign. to read more: digitaljournal.com