Polio afflicted rag picker near the filth of Yamuna river
- 5 years ago
India is currently (supposedly) removed from the list of polio-endemic countries by the World Health Organisation (WHO), suggesting that the wild polio virus had been totally eliminated from the environment. The disease paralysed thousands of children every year for several decades. However the remnants still lies in the streets of Delhi, the capital of India...A malnourished kid who earns by selling scraps collected from the filthy Yamuna River.
Polio (also called poliomyelitis) is a contagious, historically devastating disease that was virtually eliminated from the Western hemisphere in the second half of the 20th century. Although polio has plagued humans since ancient times, its most extensive outbreak occurred in the first half of the 1900s before the vaccination created by Jonas Salk became widely available in 1955.
In paralytic polio, the virus leaves the intestinal tract and enters the bloodstream, attacking the nerves (in abortive or asymptomatic polio, the virus usually doesn't get past the intestinal tract). The virus may affect the nerves governing the muscles in the limbs and the muscles necessary for breathing, causing respiratory difficulty and paralysis of the arms and legs.
In India, vaccination against Polio under the theme 'Pulse polio' started in 1978 with Expanded Program in Immunisation (EPI). By 1984, it was successful in covering around 40% of all infants, giving 3 doses of OPV to each. In 1985, the Universal Immunisation Program (UIP) was launched to cover all the districts of the country. UIP became a part of child safe and surgical motherland program (CSSM) in 1992 and Reproductive and Child Health Program (RCH) in 1997. This program led to a significant increase in coverage, up to 95%. The number of reported cases of polio also declined from 28,757 during 1987 to 3,265 in 1995.
For every hundred residents of Delhi, there is one person engaged in recycling. And among them are mostly underage kids. It is really ironical that the worst forms of child labour prevail in Delhi in a very high magnitude. At least half a million children are working in full-time jobs here. Mostly they are trafficked from their native villages. Some accompany their migrant worker parents and they live in slums. Rag-picking has been brought under the definition of a hazardous industry, but despite that 50,000 children are rag-pickers. None of the work children do is voluntary, if the child is below 18. Rag- pickers go to work due to some compulsion. There are layers of middlemen who profit from the child's labour. It is forced labour under the legal definition. Trafficked children are held in bondage and ill-treated. You go to Kalka Mandir, Hanuman Mandir or Jama Masjid, you will find disabled children begging. More often the kids are mutilated. This is Delhi's slumdog reality.
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com
Polio (also called poliomyelitis) is a contagious, historically devastating disease that was virtually eliminated from the Western hemisphere in the second half of the 20th century. Although polio has plagued humans since ancient times, its most extensive outbreak occurred in the first half of the 1900s before the vaccination created by Jonas Salk became widely available in 1955.
In paralytic polio, the virus leaves the intestinal tract and enters the bloodstream, attacking the nerves (in abortive or asymptomatic polio, the virus usually doesn't get past the intestinal tract). The virus may affect the nerves governing the muscles in the limbs and the muscles necessary for breathing, causing respiratory difficulty and paralysis of the arms and legs.
In India, vaccination against Polio under the theme 'Pulse polio' started in 1978 with Expanded Program in Immunisation (EPI). By 1984, it was successful in covering around 40% of all infants, giving 3 doses of OPV to each. In 1985, the Universal Immunisation Program (UIP) was launched to cover all the districts of the country. UIP became a part of child safe and surgical motherland program (CSSM) in 1992 and Reproductive and Child Health Program (RCH) in 1997. This program led to a significant increase in coverage, up to 95%. The number of reported cases of polio also declined from 28,757 during 1987 to 3,265 in 1995.
For every hundred residents of Delhi, there is one person engaged in recycling. And among them are mostly underage kids. It is really ironical that the worst forms of child labour prevail in Delhi in a very high magnitude. At least half a million children are working in full-time jobs here. Mostly they are trafficked from their native villages. Some accompany their migrant worker parents and they live in slums. Rag-picking has been brought under the definition of a hazardous industry, but despite that 50,000 children are rag-pickers. None of the work children do is voluntary, if the child is below 18. Rag- pickers go to work due to some compulsion. There are layers of middlemen who profit from the child's labour. It is forced labour under the legal definition. Trafficked children are held in bondage and ill-treated. You go to Kalka Mandir, Hanuman Mandir or Jama Masjid, you will find disabled children begging. More often the kids are mutilated. This is Delhi's slumdog reality.
This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM 1080i High Definition, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at wfi @ vsnl.com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com