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Vaccination fears

Kashmir Times. Dated: 10/18/2018 3:09:16 PM

Misplaced anxieties among Muslims over measles vaccine reflect the sharpening communal cleavages and shattered faith in government

The panic spread among Muslims of Jammu region with respect to the Measles/Rubella (MR) vaccination drive and their refusal to get their children immunized against diseases like measles is deeply worrying. A report in this newspaper pointed out that following rumours circulated through social media, the Muslims fear that the vaccination drive is an attempt to sterilize their community members and ensure their impotency. The deepening fear psychosis has led to ugly incidents of health department staffer being beaten up and community members trying to allay fears are also facing intimidation. Neglect on this count can lead to further dangers to the secular fabric of the state as well as exclude a certain community from the vaccination drive. The high levels of panic and reluctance of Muslims raises two immediate questions. Who circulated the rumours and why has the government not been able to put to rest the anxieties of the community? Jammu and Kashmir Health Department started the vaccination drive on September 24 across the state but various pockets in Jammu region where Muslim population is in majority, they are reluctant to get their children vaccinated. Almost a month later, the fear is deeply entrenched in the minds of the community which reflects the poor efficiency of the government in either restoring confidence or in probing who started the rumours and why. There are obvious vested interests at play trying to invoke communal anxieties and these elements need to be brought to book. It is not known why no steps are being taken to nail the culprits or reach out to the public through awareness campaigns. Though the government is toying with the idea of roping in religious leaders in the impacted pockets of the state to de-escalate the levels of extreme panic, the progress on this front appears to be tardy.
The worrying situation is a sign of the extent to which the confidence of the public particularly minorities is shattered in the government amidst widening communal polarization and anti-Muslim discourse preached by the BJP government functionaries and their patronized elements. The ongoing discourse of cow-vigilantism, Love Jehad and Islamophobia along with incidents of rioting and hounding minorities has not only betrayed the BJP's pathological contempt for the minorities, it has re-opened the wounds of the latter that were suffered during the bloody partition of 1947. These wounds were healed to a great extent by a robust and liberal constitution that guarantees equality for all and rights to all religious communities to practice their religion without any fear or intimidation and gradually shaken after Babri mosque demolition and Gujarat communal killings. Occasional riots in the last seven decades did scratch those wounds every now and then but the last four years of BJP rule have seen such jarring notes of this majoritarian discourse that seeks to conceptualise an alternate idea of India as a Hindu rashtra that they have multiplied the anxieties and fears of the minorities particularly the Muslims. Though successive government in the past have been responsible for allowing hatred and fear to penetrate into the psyche of the people, the BJP has allowed this to plunge it to irreparable depths. That bigots among minorities also further complement this process with their own hate-soaked ideologies, comments, actions and perhaps rumour-mongering is equally worrying. However, the larger onus is on the government of the day which has a moral and legal obligation to restore the public confidence and take measures to maintain the secular fabric of the country not enhance communal polarization. The vaccination episode of Jammu region shows the extent to which sharpening of communal cleavages can impact various spheres of daily life include access to health-care. Such unhealthy trends are changing the very nature of the country as it signals the transition from a liberal and secular democracy to regression of hatred, superstitions and authoritarian impulses. These need to be dealt with on a war footing.