Madrassas urged to allow vaccination

MUMBAI: A group of

clerics

,

community leaders

and activists has appealed to Muslims, especially those who run

madrassas

, to allow health officers to administer measles-rubella (MR) vaccine to their students. Several community leaders favoured the MR vaccination at a meeting called by the

All India Ulema Board

, an organization of religious leaders, at Islam Gymkhana on Thursday where

health minister Deepak Sawant

was chief guest.


A rumour that the MR vaccine might cause impotency has scared a section of the community and most city madrassas have still not got their students vaccinated. “WHO officials, doctors from the health department and experts from Aligarh Muslim University have maintained that the MR vaccine is safe and necessary. We are requesting madrassa managements, teachers and imams to not oppose the vaccine which will help root out measles and rubella, just like polio was eradicated,” said Allama Bunai Hasani, general secretary, Ulema Board.

NGOs suggested that BMC officials who hold camps in schools for MR vaccination should invite madrassas to bring their students there. “The rumour will die if parents and teachers at madrassas see that the same vaccination is given to other schoolchildren,” said Arshad Siddiqui, chairman, Red Crescent Society of India.

Convenor of Islamic Counter-Terrorism Council A R Anjaria said he will soon launch a campaign to convince madrassas across the country to get their students vaccinated. But city-based Markazul Maarif Research Centre director Maulana Burhanuddin Qasmi said he would neither speak in favour of the vaccine nor oppose it as he is not convinced about its efficacy.