This article describes the impact that enlisting the support of film and theatre actor, Farooque Shaikh, has had on India's polio eradication programme. Mr. Shaikh travelled in and around Lucknow at the launch of the November 2007 vaccination rounds in the state of Uttar Pradesh, encouraging field staff and community groups to advocate for and continue working towards polio eradication in India.

Although it is still recognised as one of India's remaining polio endemic states, Uttar Pradesh has made significant progress in controlling the emergence of new cases, reducing them in number by almost half from 2006 to 2007. In light of this, Farooque Shaikh thanked community leaders and leaders at the Islamic Centre of India for their continued support and congratulated their successes in a series of speeches. He also undertook to meet with social mobilisers from the polio Social Mobilisation Network (SMNet). He expressed his concern over their well-being and safety during certain vaccination activities, and underlined the importance of their contributions to the monumental goal of eradicating polio in Uttar Pradesh.

The media interest generated by the celebrity's presence reportedly pushed visibility of the polio programme, as well as positive media coverage, to all-time highs. Mr. Shaikh met with journalists in Lucknow, which resulted in a spike of positive polio media stories from 7 in October to 60 in November. According to this article, over one third of these are a direct result of his visit.

UNICEF India website, January 7 2008.