esidents of four villages of Behram Dheri, a union council in Charsadda district bordering Malakand, are boycotting the polio campaign and demanding electricity instead. “No electricity, no polio drops for our children,” they say.

The not-unless boycott of anti-polio drops is becoming a routine in the vaccination campaign in southern and central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Asim Gujjar, 43, chairman of Soor Kamar village council says that at least four villages of Behram Dheri union council have not had electricity since 2021.

“Our children are suffering due to the scorching heat. That’s why we’ve decided to put forth our demand for electricity in exchange for polio drops. We’ll only relent once our villages are on the electric power grid [of Malakand Hydro Power project],” says Gujjar.

Malik Anwar Taj, the National Assembly member from Charsadda, disagrees with Gujjar. He says the village lost its electricity connection because a majority of its residents were not paying their monthly bills.

“As their MNA I participated in several rounds of talks between the locals and the officials in Malakand and Charsadda. When the talks failed after many attempts, I approved a dedicated feeder and electricity poles were distributed in the region. However, the villages of Behram Dheri declined our offer of electricity connections from Charsadda. Instead, they insisted that they be supplied power from Malakand,” he says. “Charsadda suffers on account of heavy loadshedding because of line losses but the supply from Malakand is relatively stable,” he says.

Malik says the non-availability of electricity is a serious issue but he is not aware that the locals have barred the polio teams from administering polio drops.

The refusal of polio drops is nothing new in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It has been happening for many years. These boycotts are meant mostly to gain the attention of the local administration.

Last year, a jirga of the Uthmanzai tribe in North Waziristan called for a boycott of the polio campaign across the district. They were demanding improvement in the law-and-order situation, equitable distribution of natural resources and release of ‘missing’ persons. Two years ago, members of several tribes of Nawagai in Bajaur district boycotted polio drops over shortage of drinking water.

Similar boycotts have been reported in other parts of the province as well. In lieu, residents have been demanding everything from basic facilities such as potable water and gas supply to the construction of roads.

Despite the boycotts, anti-polio drives are carried out on regular interval. This year, no polio case has been reported in the KP so far.

TNS spoke to several polio workers. They said families in several villages were linking polio drops to their demands such as the provision of food, medicine and resolution of land disputes.

The local administration as well as the provincial and federal governments are aware of these issues since the polio workers continue to report the boycotts.

Ayesha Raza Farooq is the prime minister’s focal person on polio eradication. She has earlier served in the same role from 2013 to 2018. Recently, the prime minister gave her three months to remove the hurdles encountered by polio workers.

On Monday, Ms Farooq had a meeting with Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to discuss the polio eradication campaign in the province. They discussed various challenges including the boycotts.

“Those boycotting polio drops are not opposed to the anti-polio vaccine. The people lack access to basic facilities. We are working tirelessly to resolve their problems,” the CM said.

Responding to a question by TNS about the conditional boycotts, Ayesha Raza Farooq says that, while a majority of Pakistanis support anti-polio vaccination drives, a trend of boycotts is emerging. “The demands are neither related to polio nor health in general. In most such instances, parents want to protect the health of their children but surrender to pressure from their influencers. Unfortunately, by falling into such a trap, the already deprived populations add another deprivation to their children’s well-being, risking their children’s health, even lives,” she says.

“Most such boycotts have been in southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed by some places in central Khyber-Paktunkhwa and Balochistan. The programme has put in place a system of social listening to gather information regarding potential boycotts and avert them through proactive engagement with community leaders,” she says.

“After the launch of the initiative in September 2023, at least 200 potential boycotts have been averted,” she says. “Nevertheless, we acknowledge the need to work even harder, in terms of communication and behaviour change efforts,” she says.

According to Farooq, the government has deliberated on the challenge and is carefully assessing its implications. “Many of the demands may be legitimate. However, linking them to polio drops risks the health of innocent children.”

“It’s a collective struggle. We must play our role in it. The media can educate the masses about the harm associated with denying polio drops to children,” she says. “Parents need to be told that having unvaccinated children in their neighbourhood can pose a threat to their own children,” she adds.

Farooq says that the PM took stock of the polio eradication efforts in the province soon after assuming office. “The most critical outcome of the meeting was his declaration of tackling polio eradication as a national priority agenda beyond politics and all other affiliations,” she says.

Aysha Raza Farooq says that the challenges faced in KP were thoroughly discussed and solutions were identified in the presence of the chief secretary and the additional chief secretary. “We are confident that working together we’ll overcome the current hurdles and very soon achieve zero polio.”

The writer is a freelance multimedia journalist. He tweets @daudpasaney