ISLAMABAD: To recognise the efforts and boost morale of polio workers, the government has increased their daily remuneration by up to 25 per cent in a development that is set to benefit as many as 100,000 personnel, an official told Dawn on Monday.

“The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) has decided to increase the daily allowance from Rs400 to Rs500 (by Rs100) in general areas, and in hard areas the daily allowance has been increased from Rs750 to Rs850,” said head of the National Emergency Operation Centre for Polio Dr Rana Safdar.

He said that it was a long-standing demand that the remuneration should be increased as the polio workers worked throughout the day and only earned Rs400 per day in general areas and Rs750 in difficult areas.

Dr Safdar explained that hard areas referred to Balochistan, tribal districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and northern KP where polio workers had to travel over a dozen kilometres on foot to vaccinate children as there were only trails in the mountainous regions.

“We had submitted a PC-I to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council headed by Finance Minister Asad Umar, requesting that the remuneration should be increased, and it was approved. So we have decided to increase the remuneration of polio workers,” he said.

“Now polio workers would get Rs500 and Rs850 as daily allowance for five to six days that include a training session, three days of the campaign and one or two catch-up days,” added Dr Safdar.

He said the increase in remuneration would encourage the polio workers and expressed the hope that they would work with more enthusiasm and it would boost their morale.

In reply to a question, Dr Safdar said that so far as many as 43 polio workers and security officials had sacrificed their lives.

“Attacks on polio teams started in December 2012 from Karachi and the incidents increased in 2013 and 2014. However, the attacks became less frequent after the security arrangements improved in 2015,” said Dr Safdar.

The latest attack, he added, was reported in Quetta where a mother and her daughter, who were administering polio drops to children, were shot dead in January last year.

Published in Dawn, January 29th, 2019